Make It or Break It
by Dreamyin
Summary: Harry Potter can't get a break. In Voldemort's last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to another universe. Now alone in Naruto's hectic world, how long will Harry's luck allow him to get around unnoticed? "I'm so screwed..."
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Make It or Break It**

**Author: Dreamyin**

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself.

**Beta**: Beloved Daughter.

Hello curious readers! This is one of those stories that just pops up in my head and demanded to be written. Since I'm very busy (with another story) and real life, I'm unsure on how much I will update or if I will even manage to finish this story, but I'm going to do my best. The idea of the beginning of the story is mostly there, so that part will be written at least. Also, yes, this is one of those 'Harry ends up in Shinobi Land' stories. However, having read a couple of HP/N crossovers that included Harry going to Naruto-land, (and even though there were many that I liked a lot), I still felt that I missed something. So, in this story Harry will not immediately end up in Konoha or be related to anyone, but finds a place to form his own 'identity' first. I'm hoping to try something new and give you readers something to ponder about if you are bored.

Now for once and for all (including for the rest of the story) the **Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and Harry Potter. They belong to Misashi Kishimoto and J.K. Rowling respectively. I do take credit for the OC's (like Taiki and Noburu) that will pop up in the story as well as the identity that Harry will create and ever so slightly the idea about there being a difference in gravity between the worlds. If anything does remind you of other stories, please let me know. It would most likely be coincidental though, as I dislike people copying things without giving credit and make sure to follow the same principles – I don't steal. (Well, as far as that is possible while writing a fanfic, but you get the idea.)

Now please enjoy and let me know what you think of this idea!

p.s. this intro might be considered a slightly clichéd one, so if you have read too much of those already, you could just as well scan the page – it's only that you might miss some pretty good details though hehe.

**Make It or Break It**

**Chapter 1: Breaking Nature's Law**

_"Hey Sirius."_

_"How did you know I was here?"_

_Green eyes glanced towards the man in a rather confused manner. "I just did. Shouldn't I have?"_

_"Well, it's not very common. Though maybe..." The man trailed off as he sat down next to the teenager._

_"What is it?" His godson prodded, curiosity clearly in his eyes._

_Sirius smiled at him. "It's nothing. I just thought I remembered something about your mother. I just can't put my finger on it." The man shook his head._

_"It's probably nothing." He reassured the green-haired teen._

_The raven-haired boy stared at him for a long moment before he turned to watch the moon again._

_"If you say so." He agreed, though his tone wasn't as convincing._

_"I _am_ Serious, Harry." His godfather told him, ruffling his messy hair._

_The teenager smirked at the comment and the two men chuckled._

~ Final Battle ~

Harry Potter had seen and done many things for one his age.

For one, the now-seventeen-years-old young man had already confronted death long before most others would. Besides this 'accomplishment', the raven-haired teenager had been the victim of the unfairness in life many times. There had been times in which he had to face his weaknesses and faults and accept that he would have to stand up and move on, stronger and wiser than before.

He had learned to be wary of people from experience. He also knew how to let people in and to protect those who are dear to him - even if this meant shunning them. He knew about coping with betrayal, deceit, abuse and grief. The young man had learned how to cherish the many happy moments of his life as well.

Yes, those living in war learned to treasure those moments very quickly.

Which was why he was currently trying his utmost best to remember all those joyful moments as he once again fought against the main source of his troubles, the Dark Lord Voldemort.

"You might have survived the Killing Curse once again, Potter, but I assure you that, the next time, I will make sure to burn your body to the ground." The snake-like man hissed at him in Parseltongue.

"You will never get that chance, _Tom_" Harry taunted right back, trying to calm his raging emotions as the glowing line of magic between them shifted once again.

'Come on Potter, calm yourself.' He chided mentally, feeling himself shake from the epinephrine that ran through his body.

It was not as easy as he tried to make it sound of course. There was simply so much at stake and Harry was afraid – oh so afraid – of what would happen if he were to fail.

"Don't be too sure of yourself, _Boy_-Who-Shall-Die." The snake-man in front of him hissed right back at him, anger seeping through it. The magic line shuddered from the force that both wizards were putting into the attack. Most of the magic eventually evaporated into the air surrounding them, making it more difficult for some wizards and witches near them to breath.

The two combatants were not unaffected either, each silently struggling with the oppressive tension that was rising between them.

Harry felt sweat roll down his back from the effort it took him to keep up with his enemy. In a way, no matter how much he hated Voldemort, he couldn't help but feel a slight respect – and fear - for the strength that the man possessed. _Tom _really was a great wizard. It was just a real shame that he had let himself be lured to the darkness.

Still, Harry told himself, no matter the power that the Dark Lord possessed, Harry could do this.

He had managed to survive all those years against all odds. He should be able to do this. Everything would have been for nothing if he let himself end up dead. Hermione had been nagging them during the whole hunt of the Horcruxes to read, to learn, to become stronger. The three of them had worked so hard.

And Harry really had become stronger as well. Not only physically, but also mentally he had grown a lot. He had had years to mentally prepare for this moment! He was finally going to end this freaking prophecy and be done with it!

Even if it was the last thing he did.

Harry's eyes narrowed with the new determination that he had found in himself and the shakiness of his hand decreased slightly.

He even managed to give his archenemy a mocking and grim smile.

"Everybody dies eventually Tom. Nobody will be an exception. Why do you fear death so much?" He hissed right back at the man, though none of the anger was put in it.

Oddly enough, he felt a bit like Dumbledore, chiding someone for his fear of death. Yet, now that Harry had had his own little experience with death, he realised that Dumbledore had been right. The knowledge that there was still something out there, after this life, instead of dark nothingness made it that he didn't fear it as much anymore.

If anything, he would be nearly content to join his parents in the end.

'…and those that might have fallen during this battle.' He couldn't help but think grimly as his heart clenched at the idea.

Instead of death, he feared for the chaos and darkness that he would leave behind if he left the world of the living and let Voldemort win.

His heart skipped a beat at the thought, and he swallowed.

Voldemort suddenly seemed to up his power, which caused him to grit his teeth as he felt himself starting to slip ever so slowly. At first he had barely noticed it, but the meeting point of their magic started to inch closer to him. Judging from the glee in his enemy's eyes, Voldemort noticed the same. This revelation only made the Dark Lord put even more force behind his attack, making Harry actually growl out in frustration.

Voldemort laughed at him.

Harry's hand started shaking again.

The younger wizard momentarily closed his eyes to stabilise himself in the memories that would usually make his heart feel lighter, similar to casting a Patronus.

'I just need to wait for them to kill Nagini.' He reminded himself as well, desperately gripping his wand more firmly.

He had been running around too much to kill those bloody Horcruxes the last couple of years to falter now. It would all be in vain if he let himself be overwhelmed and get all of his friends k…

'No. I won't allow it.'

He refused to acknowledge the sensation of tears building up behind his eyes. He didn't want to think about what would happen to them if he were to lose. He shouldn't either. He should be focusing on winning.

But he was running out of energy.

And Voldemort's magic was getting dangerously close.

_'I will only truly have left this school when none around here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.'_ A memory of the old bearded Headmaster resurfaced out of nowhere. Harry wasn't sure if it were these exact words and why he suddenly thought of it, but brought him some inspiration.

Something that he desperately needed at the moment.

He also remembered Hermione telling him about all the magic that Hogwarts possessed. She had rambled about the connection that the castle had to the headmaster, he vaguely recalled as well. He didn't have a clue what she had said about it anymore, but he didn't care. He was going to try something – probably something very stupid that could get him killed– but he would have to take the gamble.

'If I have any luck left, this would be the perfect time to use it.'

So, in a rather desperate attempt to acquire new energy, he mentally tried to connect with the magic of Hogwarts.

'Please let it work.' He prayed as he silently reached out for the magic in the walls to lend him some strength.

'Please…I'm no headmaster, but please! _Please_!' Was the only thing he managed to call out, allowing his feelings to accompany his thoughts. There was a long pause as Harry continued to struggle to put his mind on two rather difficult actions, without any sign of it actually working. Just before the wizard was about to decide that it was a lost cause, that he had gone mad for even trying, the magic within Hogwarts responded.

A memory flashed in front of his eyes – Albus smiling down at him – and Harry suddenly felt like he could breathe again.

_"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me..."_

Tuning out another taunt coming from the Dark Lord, who by now had noticed that something was happening, Harry felt a wave of comfortable magic come over him and suddenly it was if he had opened his eyes for the first time. All the magic around him, Hogwarts itself, it was suddenly visible to him. It was not through seeing, but it was a sudden knowledge that he couldn't shake off. It didn't take him long to recognize Hogwarts presence – its magic - because she felt like home. He mentally gabed as he saw the foul energy that Voldemort possessed.

It was even worse than he had thought.

Voldemort was talking to him again, but Harry ignored it. Instead he was slowly opening up to the wave of Hogwarts magic that was surrounding him.

The moment he did, he immediately felt a lot steadier. His hand stopped shaking almost completely and he moved his feet to ground himself better to the ground. Feeling much more confident, he decided to trust the magic of Hogwarts to act as a shield to protect his mind as he continued to circulate the energy surrounding them.

It was working, the advance of the Dark Lord had been stopped.

If anything, the tides had turned. Voldemort's eyes widened as he saw Harry's magic draw closer to him.

Then it happened.

The feared Lord in front of him suddenly faltered – Neville had killed the Horcrux! - which made Harry realise that _this_ was the time to end it.

Either Harry would beat him and live or he would go down with his archenemy. He was very much aware that before the battle had really started, everyone had said their silent goodbyes in one way or the other. His goodbye had been said. Whatever would happen, as long as his friends were safe, he would be more than willing to sacrifice himself. He had been willing to do so before, without knowing whether Voldemort would be really defeated, so he was willing to do it once again.

He was almost eager to.

A slightly creepy glint appeared in the teenager's eyes at the thought of his enemy's downfall and the wizard actually managed to shoot a grin to the snake-like man in front of him. Said man was staring at him in horror, slowly starting to realise how vulnerable he suddenly was.

Their wands shot forward and a glowing line of magic connected them once again.

"Suddenly feeling a lot less confident, right Tom?" Harry called out to the over the noise, once again gaining support from the energy surrounding them.

The Dark Lord tried to rebuke but was unable to, as he was being overwhelmed. The Elder Wand suddenly started defying him without his Horcrux there to give him extra power. Before Harry knew it, his magic hit Voldemort and the Elder Wand flew right into his hand. The awareness of the energy surrounding him suddenly increased, and he realised that it was actually flowing closely around them.

As if they were standing right in the middle of the eye of a maelstrom.

Harry had been so distracted by this mind-blowing revelation – How could he suddenly sense this? Was this Hogwarts doing? - that his attention had slipped from Voldemort, believing that it was over.

The wizard's eyes widened in horror as he did notice that a part of the energy was suddenly absorbed by the Dark Lord in front of him, in an urgent attempt to attack him one last time. Harry's lack of attention ended up being a serious mistake, as suddenly a very familiar mist appeared right in front of him.

"Potter!" A gruesome high-pitched cry was heard all over Hogwarts as the black shadow charged forwards.

Caught off guard and feeling _very_ desperate, Harry instinctively _pulled_ on the magic around him. The energy obeyed his pull, but only a moment later Harry couldn't keep it under control anymore. Another second later, the last remains of Lord Voldemort were on him. Harry shivered as the dark energy – looking vaguely like a hand – grasped his throat. For a moment, the wizard couldn't breathe as Voldemort tried to Apparate away, pulling the teenager along with him.

Who knew, Voldemort might have been planning to Apparate him to the lake and get him to drown. He might have tried to get back to the top of the tower once again and let him fall to his death. Nobody would know, for the magic followed the pair the first couple of meters along with the apparition and tightened around them. It swirled so quickly that the black shadows were overpowered by a bright blue-ish light, which eventually evaporated into thin air.

Leaving dark shadows and ashes behind.

And pulling the Boy-Who-Lived along as the energy moved through space and time.

It was this day, that would be remembered as the day that The-Boy-Who-Had-Lived sacrificed himself in order to protect those he loved against the Dark Lord.

In reality, the adventure of Harry Potter was long from over, but nobody in this world would ever know that. Except for maybe a certain dreamy blond girl, who in the midst of the remaining chaos, managed to crack a bright smile while staring up at the sky. A hint of tears appeared in her eyes as she whispered under her breath.

"Good luck, Harry Potter."

~ Memory's Lane ~

_The raven-haired teenager was lying on his back in the grass, watching the stars that filled the dark sky. He seemed distracted, though that didn't mean that he wasn't aware of the predator that was slowly prowling towards him. The dark figure crouched down ever so slightly as he neared, sneaking up to his target. Then he playfully wiggled his behind, his tail rapidly moving from side to side, before he jumped-_

_"Hey Padfoot." Came the calm acknowledgement._

_- and Sirius sighed in slight disappointment. The teenager didn't seem startled at all as he changed back to his human form._

_"One of these days..." He muttered under his breath before he turned his attention back to the teenager._

_"Shouldn't you be sleeping Harry?" He asked, nudging Harry's leg with his foot. _

_"I can't sleep." The heavy bags under his eyes indicated that he hadn't been sleeping for a while now. The older man frowned, worried about his charge. He might not be able to see him much, but that didn't mean that he couldn't try to take care of the boy._

_"You have a lot on your mind then?" He prodded, though he already knew the answer. He settled down next to his charge, moving his hands behind his neck and waited for the teen to talk. _

_A dry chuckle escaped the teenager's lips. "Yeah. You could say that"_

_There was a silence between them, before the man smiled and pointed at one of the stars. "Did you know that that star -" He pointed at a bright star twinkling above them. "is the brightest star in the sky?"_

_"Yeah... so?"_

_"It's called Sirius." The man continued with a smug smirk. _

_"Seriously?" The teenager blinked._

_"Of course I'm Sirius." The man grinned at the teen. _

_His godson had already seen the joke coming and had already given him a playful whack on the chest._

_There was another period of silence between them, but Sirius didn't mind. The wary eyes of his godson had become a little brighter, so he took that as a sign that he was doing well. _

_"You know. A long time ago, the stars were one of the most reliable of all the navigation systems. They would especially use them in the deserts, since the Sirius star would always point them the way." Sirius continued to explain some more. All the time, the man couldn't help but feel happy that his godson was carefully listening to his every word._

_"Want to know some more?" He asked, deciding that the teenager needed some distraction._

_Green eyes turned to him and the teenager smiled. "Yeah, I would like that."_

_He grinned in reply and started pointing out various stars and drew imaginary lines between them._

_"How do you know so much about them?" The teenager couldn't help but ask._

_Sirius couldn't help but smile warily at him, matching his own tired state. "Well, when you are alone and have way too much time on your hands, you tend to use every distraction that you can possibly get."_

_Harry stared at him for a moment, studying the signs that were still present of his stay in Azkaban. After a while, he nodded slowly and turned back to watch the sky. He pointed at a cluster of stars._

_"So... what was that called again?"_

~Somewhere else~`

"Bloody hell…" Harry groaned out, sounding slightly muffled as he laid face-down on the muddy and dirty ground.

'What happened?' He thought as the dizziness in his head disorientated him. He felt like he had spun around so many times that he had been torn apart. Never had he thought that something could hurt more than Apparition and the Cruciatus Curse combined.

Was he dying?

He groaned out in pain, but his survival instincts would not allow him to give in so easily.

Trying to find out where he was, he moved his limps to heave himself on all fours. The teenager never got that far though and he gasped out in pain. The slightest bit of effort to get up brought him back down on the ground almost immediately.

"Bloody _bloody_ hell." He breathed out once more.

For a long time, the wizard couldn't do anything but to lie there panting and trying to keep breathing. Tears ran down his face as his whole body hurt. Eventually he curled up in a fetal position, reminding himself to just _keep_ breathing. He feverishly tried to block out the pain through Occlumency, but it wasn't working as the pain was actually keeping him from focusing properly.

He didn't really know how long he laid there, but eventually a part of his brain was urging him to stand up. He had calmed down slightly as the pain had been reduced to a less overwhelming intensity and he finally managed to push it even further down with the help of Occlumency – which they had found long ago was more of a wave plain mental stubbornness in his case.

He took another large breath and finally managed to get on all fours – though shakily.

After which he just barely kept himself from puking all over the ground. His face twisted into a grimace, as he could practically taste the awful acid in the back of his throat.

A lot of effort and pain later, the wizard was leaning heavily against a large tree, which looked like it had seen better days.

Now he mentioned it - he glanced around - the whole clearing looked like it had seen better days. Not that he could be sure. He couldn't see very well without his pair of glasses. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to spot them but he couldn't find them. Had they fallen of during the fight?

The only thing that he managed to grab was a very familiar shaped and _burned _piece of wood.

That was, or rather had been, his wand.

A pang of desperation and sadness shot through his chest.

'Shit.' He through. The whole situation was suddenly making him far too uncomfortable.

Had he not been practicing to use some basic Wandless Spells to defend himself, he would have freaked out by now.

But he knew better than to give in to his emotions in unknown situations – at least, that was what all those damn books told him - so instead he feverishly tried to keep himself from panicking.

'No glasses and no wand. Great.'

He rubbed his eyes in annoyance. The moment he started rubbing though, an itching suddenly appeared in his eyes. To be truthful, they were itching pretty badly. Getting more frustrated, Harry growled out. There was one thing that might be even more annoying that pain, and that was itching. Leaning back against the tree with his full weight, Harry used both his hands to rub against them, as the itching became even worse.

'Aw come on!' He thought in dismay.

Just before it was actually becoming painful, it suddenly stopped.

'Alright, that was creepy.' Harry thought as he blinked once again, his eyes aching from the effort he put into rubbing his eyes. He startled slightly as his sight had gotten _better_. Absolutely shocked, he checked once again, moving his hand in front of his eyes and back again.

'Holy-'

He was too shocked to actually finish that thought as his eyes started tingling again when he tried to focus on something too far. That was still too blurry it seemed.

Was his magic correcting his eyesight?

Bloody bloody bloody hell.

But still, from being practically blind to being able to see the closest tree on his right sharply… He never thought that would be even possible. Even with magic it was difficult – not to mention very expensive – to correct one's eyesight.

He still didn't have his wand. That didn't sit well with him.

'Well at least I'm able to see where I'm going.' He allowed the positive thought to enter him mind and pushed himself away from the tree, before his eyes widened in fear. 'But then again…'

"Where the hell am I?"

He looked around, suddenly feeling very much afraid of his surroundings. Where was he? Was he being watched? Where the hell was Voldemort?

No. That man was dead. That was for sure. . He clearly remembered the victory that he had felt, the relief, as he had seen him slowly breaking down into dust. For good this time…

'During the… flight?' Harry wondered, suddenly realising that he could be _anywhere_.

The amount of magic that had been swirling around him had been extremely dangerous and potential to do nearly anything. Even wizards themselves tended to underestimate this fact. Not only had the magic been coming from two powerful wizards, but there had also had also been part of the very old Castle herself. That had been a lot of magic for such a small place. That was indeed very dangerous.

Especially, seeing as magic was not completely bound to the laws of nature as he knew them.

And Harry had stupidly pulled it towards himself in his fright. Adding Tom's _Apparition _– Harry had recognised the awful nauseating feeling very well – off all things to the mix, couldn't be a good combination.

Where had he ended up?

He had blacked out a few times during his little trip, but he remembered the lights, the falling, the twists and the portal-like light that he had rushed to and…

A very strong sense of foreboding hit him full force as he finally took note of the strange- no different vibe of the air than he had sensed during his fight. Was this even magic? It felt so different. He hesitantly held out his hand, knowing that he wasn't very good at wandless magic. At all. Just enough to protect himself with the basic spells.

Still he had to try.

"Lumos" He whispered, holding out his hand.

Nothing.

"Lumos." He whispered more forcefully, gesturing his hand in a way he would if he had a wand.

It was weak and  
it quickly faded out, but it had worked. Somewhat weakly and it only surrounded his hand, which was odd by itself, but it was something.

He sighed in relief.

He went onto the next spell.

"Tempus."

Nothing.

In contrast to Lumos, Tempus used the magic of ones surroundings as a sensor to delay the information that it would show. It was a great method to check this strange vibe that surrounded him. It didn't feel like magic, but that wasn't possible right?

Here – wherever he was – it showed nothing.

'But there is always at least _some_ magic on Earth…' Harry's mind cried out in horror.

"Tempus!" He whispered roughly.

He stared at the fuzzy mist that appeared in front of him and his eyes were itching again. This indicated an error.

"No way. Tempus!" He tried again.

And again...

He wasn't sure how many spells he tried that used the magic of his surroundings. He tried to search for a shield, some ward that might block him from magic, but he couldn't find anything. He tried to summon things that he knew should be able to reach him. He tried to Apparate.

'Focus on Hogwarts! Focus on Hogwarts!' He kept repeating on and on in his head, but the unpleasant sensation never appeared in his stomach. There wasn't even the heavy feeling of being blocked by a ward.

It felt as if it didn't exist. Which was impossible.

Harry wasn't sure how long he sat there. He wasn't sure when his exhaustion - his use of magic in the last few hours had not helped at all - overwhelmed him and he fell asleep. He only clearly remembered the moment that he woke up.

It was dark. It was night. He could see the light of the moon shining down on the clearing.

Nearly afraid to do so, the wizard looked up at the sky. His eyes feverishly started scanning the usually familiar sky.

The brightest star stood out almost immediately and Harry couldn't help but sigh in relief. At least, until he noticed that all the other stars... didn't match.

_'A long time ago, the stars were one of the most reliable of all the navigation systems.' _Sirius's echoed in his head.

Another sky.

'Shit please _please_ don't tell me that I am -' Harry thought as his hands found their way to his hair and he clenched them.

"Where the hell am I?" He whispered in disbelief and he couldn't help but choke up.

Another world?

He couldn't be. That wasn't possible. He pushed that possibility roughly out of his mind.

Still, that didn't stop him from breaking down at the base of the tree. The situation finally got to him and he wasn't able to keep himself together anymore. Not without having at least some sort of support around him. Seeing as he didn't have anything, he cradled his burned wand and unsuccessfully tried to stifle his frustration.

He cried out, willing for his friends to come and help him.

But nobody did and he remained alone, until he finally fell once again into a distressed and exhausted sleep.

**~End chapter~**

So it begins! It is quite difficult to not start off with something too cliché. What do you think though?

I would love to hear from you guys! So please don't be lazy and let me know.

Till next time!

~Dreamyin


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself. Not a superHarry!

**Beta**: None. I'm also not a native speaker, so please try to ignore the mistakes.

A/N Hello everyone! Thank you very much for the nice reviews! Also thanks for a lot of curious Alerts and even some favs! I can understand some of the reluctance to review and faving so early when you don't know where the story is heading. However, I'm on a roll, so hopefully this (very fast! Oh what am I getting myself into?) will make you even more enthusiastic!

To be truthful, I really shouldn't upload right now, since I have an exam for college tomorrow, but I just seem to be unable to focus. Sigh.

Also I just want to point out that no, this will not be a super-Harry fiction. He will get strong – have you seen how strong everyone gets in Shippuuden? I don't want to get him killed by simply walking among them. So yes he will be strong but it might take a while and even then, he will not be superpowerful/godlike/superninja-like. At all. At least that will not be my intention. I will make sure that Harry will have enough problems thrown his way that this will not hap-

Alright, I will stop babbling. Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!

**Chapter 2: Can't Get a Break**

~The next morning~

When the Vanquisher-of-the-Dark-Lord awoke from his unpleasant slumber the next morning, he had immediately snapped into another mindset. It was a mindset that was familiar to him. Even as a small boy in the cupboard had he used it to overcome his sadness and loneliness.

Crying hadn't solved anything before. It wouldn't solve anything now.

Harry had had his pity-party for now.

He had to man up, stop being angry at everything and just had to try to stay calm. He now had to look at the facts that were in front of him. He had to survive this idiotic situation.

He was not home. He was somewhere else entirely. This was unfortunately confirmed after a few more fruitless attempts of many spells and Harry acknowledged that he was seriously screwed.

No magic. Different stars. _Maybe_ even an improbable case of having ended up in another world.

No, he unfortunately had not forgotten about that whole _possible_ dilemma either.

"I'm so screwed..." The wizard muttered with a heavy sigh, feeling like he should state it out loud.

However, once that little conclusion had been duly noted, the teenager didn't have much choice but to start moving. After all, this wouldn't change anything about his situation. No, he had to move. Wherever he had ended up, he had to find food, water, and _people_. Human beings. He refused to believe that he had landed in a place – whatever world this might be- without at least other homo sapiens. He wasn't sure how he would survive otherwise.

He refused to think about that possibility.

Having rested for a while and gotten used to the annoying dull ache that Harry constantly felt, the wizard considered himself to be fit enough to travel.

Though he had to stand up before he could.

'That is going to take some effort' He thought, mentally preparing himself for the pain that would accompany the movement. So taking a deep breathe, the wizard started to slowly push away from the tree…

…and blinked as he stood up with much lesser effort than he had actually expected it to take. If anything, he felt actually feeling quite _light_ on his feet.

'Never felt like this before.' He mused as he once again shifted on his feet.

He paused, before he dared to take a few steps forwards and couldn't help note that even then the light feeling in his head did not disappear.

What was going on?

'It is as if the gravity…' Harry pondered, once again taken by surprise. 'Does that mean-?' He wondered at the same time.

There was only one way to find out.

Harry jumped lightly into the air, making sure not to use too much strength.

His eyes widened.

The moment he landed on his feet again, he toppled back in shock and ungracefully landed on his butt.

"Holy shit! Did I just jump about five feet into the air?" He whispered to himself, looking at his legs in disbelief. He couldn't quite believe it.

After having realised that, yes, that _really_ happened; he focused on something else to experiment with. He stared at his hands for a moment before he put them on the ground at his side and _pushed_ himself away from the ground with the effort he could muster in his current state.

He stumbled forward as he practically launched himself on his feet again and he had to practically run forward in order not to land on his face.

This was so odd.

_Another world. _The ideas suddenly didn't seem that improbable anymore.

'Merlin!'

Wherever he was, this world was absolutely _crazy_.

As if said 'crazy world' tried to prove itself, there was a sudden flash of metal in front of him. It was partly due to his quick reflexes that he wasn't hit, as the object passed him with an inch from his face. Being completely caught off guard once again, the momentum made Harry topple back onto the ground once more.

'What the-!'

He sat up and turned with big eyes at the oddly shaped blade that was now stuck in the tree right next to him. Had it been aimed a little more to the right… Harry shivered as he rubbed his neck.

'That had been so close!'

It was a second later that his near fatal-experience was filed away and his paranoia – and curiosity - returned.

'Isn't that once of those martial art's weapons?' He thought, recognising it from a movie he had once seen before.

Shakily, the wizard tried to get a feeling of his surroundings as he quickly moved towards the edge of the clearing.

"_Constant Vigilance!" _A memory in the voice of Alastor Moody reminded him. At the moment, the wizard couldn't help but agree with the dead wizard. His eyes flickered nervously over into the shadows of the trees nearby. That blade had to come from something. Was there someone in the shadows?

'If only I had my damn glasses.'

As far as he could tell there wasn't anyone there, but he didn't know if he could trust his senses in this world. Eventually, his hearing picked up sound of clashing steel and yelling in the distance, meaning that the knife must have come from that fight.

Harry groaned. No way! Fighting? Here too?

'That's it...I have had it.'

Yes, the Boy-Who-Lived had had enough. He didn't want to be involved in any kind of conflict right now, no matter that the blade - that had nearly killed him - was almost proof on its own that there were indeed people out there. Nope, he had had enough conflict for at a couple of days… or months. At least a few days of peaceful silence would be appreciated.

There was no way that he was going to get involved in that fight. No way.

'Hide.' His instincts told him. Yes, he had to hide. This was too much information right now.

If he wasn't careful, he might have a nervous breakdown. There was only so much information he could take in one day.

He glanced at the trees and bushes that he had neared.

He wasn't sure whether he could use his magic in this place unnoticed, or if he could use it at all – the Lumos didn't count – and he didn't want to think about that possibility. Luckily, he at least had enough practice from his 'games' with Dudley to know how to hide.

So he easily – he nearly tripped as he was once caught off guard by his own speed - slipped into the bushes and laid down near one of the roots. A place where he had the most protection, since he could hide behind the wood to dodge another knife, and where he was hidden from sight completely.

He stopped moving as soon as he sat slightly comfortable and had a good sight on the clearing that he had come from.

Just when the bush stopped rustling, two men appeared out of nowhere in the clearing and landed right in front of his bush.

Harry let out a mental snort in disbelief. He had the worst luck ever.

Their style of clothing was unfamiliar to him. They looked quite strange. One was clad in some kind of brown warrior clothing with a dark cloak surrounding the man. He had short bright red hair – which painfully reminded him of all the Weasleys that he probably would never see again - which was kept, out of his eyes by some kind of headband with a strange sign engraved into it. Some kind of swirl that formed a… leaf? He barely managed to see the diagonal line that slashed through it.

'What does that mean?'

The other man looked even stranger. He was wearing a white mask that had made Harry tense when he had spotted him, before the wizard had noticed the paint that covered it. A bandana covered his hair and the man wore white armour that mostly protected his chest and forearms. He was also wearing some kind of cloak, which he managed to slip out of when the other was distracted with finding a good landing spot within the clearing.

Harry followed the movement of the pairing quite warily.

They moved quite quickly, but Harry was able to follow it ever so slightly. That did not mean that it was easy though, as the pair seemed to literally all dance over the clearing. Their limps and actions were blurs and he lost them a couple of times. They were really fast. He was glad for all those years of following a tiny golden snitch around the Quidditch field.

He tensed when they came too close once, but luckily they darted away quickly enough. Harry sighed in relief as the heavy atmosphere disappeared once more and he could breathe again. He had no clue what the heavy energy was, but it was kind of scary.

He squinted his eyes when they moved out of his slowly expanding vision range and became blurry once more.

They were truly skilled, which made Harry even more paranoid of them. If they were to spot him, he would probably be dead.

'Why aren't they leaving?' Harry wondered, his heart rate picking up. 'They surely hadn't trouble moving around before.'

He frowned as he saw them create distance from each other and suddenly there was a large fire raging between them. Harry gasped in surprise and leaned back as far as he could. He swore he saw both contestants freeze for a moment before they once again focused on each other.

'Did they hear me?' He wondered. He surely hoped they hadn't.

Harry automatically put a hand on his mouth to stifle any other sounds he made, having learned from early on how to remain silent.

He watched with growing fascination as the two – what were they? Ninja? – battled while each using different elements. Fire, water… even lighting came into play as they battle suddenly seemed to become even deadlier.

They were trying to kill each other.

Then out of nowhere, a high-pitched sound vibrated through the area. Harry crawled at his ears to make the sound stop, but it wasn't working. It hurt, a lot! A sense of dizziness and disorientation crashed upon him and he acted instinctively.

"_S-surdo_." He whispered quietly, using a spell that he had used so much that he should be able to do wandlessly as well.

After all, Ron snored a _lot _and_ loudly, _so a sound-dampening spell was a gift from heaven in that department.

It wasn't working. His eyes widened in horror and then pushed a lot of effort behind the spell. His magic was messed up! He was going to be deaf if it didn-

'Come on! Come one!' He tried to direct the magic to his ears as well.

_Intent Harry. It is all about intent!_

His hands started crawling over his ears, nearly drawing blood as he did.

Finally, after who knows how much magic he had used, it worked.

He let out a sigh of relief as the sound reduced itself to an ever so quiet ringing noise. His ears were still pounding, but the dizziness disappeared.

'Thank Merlin.'

The masked fighter seemed to have taken some measures as well, but had been caught off guard for a moment, which was enough for his opponent.

Using this distraction to his advantage, the red-head kicked out quite unexpectedly and the masked man was flung away and landed roughly into a bush, which of course had to be the one that Harry was hiding in. Unfortunately for the wizard, the heavy man landed quite painfully on Harry's leg, making Harry hiss out in pain.

The wizards' eyes widened in shock and fear as the man quickly came back to his senses and immediately turned to him, kunai in hand. Green widened eyes stared into the shadowed eyes holes of the mask. Harry instinctively held up his hands and shied away.

He barely dodged some kind of threatening swipe to his neck, unsure if he had just barely escaped a painful death yet again or whether the man was warning him. There was no second attempt to hit him though, after which Harry reluctantly concluded that the crazy man had been startled and might not have meant to kill him.

Whatever the masked man had been planning to do next though, he didn't get the opportunity to do as multiple –very sharp – knives suddenly assaulted them.

The masked man barely managed to get away in time, even though one knife seemed to have hit him somewhere. Harry wasn't sure, as he was gone too quickly.

Harry, however, wasn't that fortunate.

Harry bit in his hand to keep himself from crying out in pain as one his own leg, which was now free to move again. It didn't take long before it started bleeding.

The attacker didn't seem to care though, having solely focused on using him as a distraction.

Instead, the brightly red-haired ninja suddenly appeared in front of him and immediately glanced at the wizard before sending him a creepy smirk that made Harry shiver.

'So they had heard me and doesn't care that I get hurt?'

Had the pain of his leg not distracted Harry, he would have glared at the red-head. The ninja said something to him and then followed the masked man that had disappeared into the woods on the right side of the clearing.

Harry stared at the place where the man had been just moments ago, eyes wide in shock.

His hearing might have been decreased a lot, but Harry had heard enough to know that that had _not_ been English.

Harry allowed himself to curse loudly before he gritted his teeth. As carefully as possible, he pulled the knife out of his leg and pushed his hand on the bloody wound to heal it with his magic. It was a slow process, but it worked. It was something that he had started to learn in his early years at Hogwarts, especially during the summer. He had eventually gotten better with the help of Poppy in his basic training later on. The large books on healing that Hermione had forced him and Ron to read had helped too, even though some of them had been very boring.

Still ever since they had started hunting the Horcruxes, Hermoine had been very demanding. He couldn't help but be grateful for that now.

'What kind of language was that?' He wondered, panicking.

His mind started racing.

'If this is another world with people with different powers that are speaking another language that I can't understand. How will I get myself away from trouble? I obviously shouldn't stand out. I'm pretty sure that magic doesn't exist here if they have that kind of powers.' The wizard thought feverishly as he ripped off part of his shirt to cover the wound.

Hell, he didn't even spot any kind of item that gave them their power, like magic and a wand. Instead, it seemed to come from them! How powerful were these people?

'I have to find a place to stay and remain unnoticed.' Harry feverishly concluded.

Somewhat more focused with that flimsy goal, he was ready to flee.

'Damn my luck. Not even Apparition works.'

Easily pushing himself back up, though slightly more difficult with his aching leg, he stumbled towards the opposite direction that the ninja's had disappeared too.

'Quickly, quickly. I am not going to get involved in this.' He thought, quickening his pace.

Only to freeze as the masked man suddenly came back flying across the clearing with a pained growl, before he hit one of the trees. Harry nearly winched at the sound of crushing bones, before he slowly turned around to face the freaky red-head that was advancing on the fallen man. The insanity on his face stopped Harry from comparing him to Ron once again, as soon as he came within his visual range.

The ninja grinned quite creepily when he spotted the time traveler, before he then turned back to his fallen opponent and chuckled out loud.

However, it was this expression that made Harry narrow his eyes as anger hit him.

He knew that expression. The heavy feeling that he had felt suddenly clicked.

He was going to kill him.

'Shit. Shit. Shit. Should I stop him? What if the other man is some kind of maniac? Who the hell is the good guy here?'

Harry watched as the masked man tried to get up once more, but was unable to. Instead he sagged back against the tree, presumably knocked out. The other ninja laughed gleefully as he prowled towards his pray.

Glancing at Harry, the smirk widened and he winked at him, resulting Harry's blood to run cold. A second later, fury took its place.

He had had enough shit the last few days and now this man dared to _wink_ at him?

His decision was made.

'No way in hell that I'm going to let that guy!-' Harry thought, starting to feel very angry.

So, just as the ninja hefted his knife in the air to cut the man in the heart, ending his life quite painfully, the ninja was tackled to the side. The tackle lacked technique though and the red-head let himself roll into the tackle and ended up with the teenager under him.

Damn it.

At first he looked very angry that he had been stopped from killing the man, before a grin slipped on his lips and his eye twinkled dangerously. Easily restraining said teenager, the red-head leered at him, making Harry stiffen.

He shifted the kunai to the teen's throat, stopping him from making any movements that he was about to take.

Harry shivered at he felt the steel touch a very vulnerable neck.

'Shit, I really need to stop rushing into things.' Harry though, his heart beating nervously in his chest, much to the amusement of the red-head. At least if one were to use the smirk was any indicator. He said something to him, which sounded like he was taunting him, but Harry couldn't be too sure.

'Shit. How am I going to get myself out of this?' He thought.

As the man leaned over to him, staring in his eyes, Harry suddenly felt very much like hyperventilating. He had just defeated Voldemort of all people! And here he was, being toyed with like he was nothing at all. The thought made him grit his teeth as he narrowed his eyes at the man, whose smirk only widened as he came even closer to his face.

It was then that Harry absently realized that he must look quite exotic to the man… There was an Asian touch to the man's features and the look that he was giving him – curious and… Harry didn't even want to think about it – made him wonder if he really looked so different.

Meanwhile his captor kept Harry's hands stuck in one hand while keeping it between their chest as an extra leverage. He tried tugging them out and nearly succeeded, but the sharp knife at his neck twitched dangerously.

The man smirked again, nearly touching his nose as he said something again.

Harry tried to keep his expression unchanged as a sudden idea hit him.

If the red-head dared to look him in the eyes, he was going to make sure that the man would regret it.

Thus, Harry pushed his magic into his eyes to direct it at the man. What he was going to do could be really foolish - not to mention reckless - as Harry didn't have that much experience.

Instead, his experience was mostly limited to the knowledge of the theory behind it. He had never used it to the fullest extent before though.

He would have to try to replicate what had happened with Snape – which might have mean that he was a natural at copying what he had kept doing in his head the whole time – and Voldemort's mind games, while combining the things he had read in books.

He could only hope that it would work.

Not only for him, but also for his current victim. Though, frying the man's brains might not be that bad if he was really prepared to do what Harry thought he was prepared to do to him.

Payback.

Harry managed to suppress the smirk that he wanted to shoot at the man that was smirking down at him, still talking.

Harry had absolutely no clue what he was saying. Though, whatever he was talking about, Harry decided that the man probably found it to be very amusing. He suddenly saw the eyes shift to his forehead and realized that his lighting-shaped scar on his forehead must be exposed.

The ninja stared at it in interest as if he wanted to study if further, causing Harry to snarl in warning. The man's eyes flicker back to his green ones, and as soon as their eyes connected once again, the wizard immediately took his chances.

"_Legilimens_" Harry whispered nearly breathlessly and he felt himself whisked away toward the man's mind, hopefully taking the man with him.

**~End chapter~**

Harry, Harry, Harry... "Once a foolish Griffindor, always a foolish Griffindor"

Now please don't be shy and share some of your thoughts with me! :D

Hope to hear from you guys soon!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself. Not a superHarry!

**Beta**: None! Also, I'm not a native speaker so please try to ignore any mistakes that you come across? Or let me know and I will fix them.

Hello dear readers! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I decided to spend some time on this story and then continue to write the chapter for my other Naruto story. A lot of fanfiction in one day! Yay!

Anyway, I want to point out that I **rewrote/added **the first chapter ever so slightly as a dear reviewer pointed out that Harry might have jumped to conclusions a little too fast. So my brain immediately started to panic –since it was totally true – and I came up with something so make it more believable. A few Sirius/Harry moments as well, just because Sirius is awesome. Yeah seriously. Hehe.

Well, I hope you guys enjoy the newest twist in this longer chapter! So go on! Read it and let me know what you think with a review!

Enjoy!

**Chapter 3: Make it Through**

~ Mindscape ~

The man's defenses were very difficult to get through. Harry was suddenly glad for his Snape's horrible training sessions. Whether it had been the man's intention or not, Snape had taught Harry how to push past peoples' defenses with pure frustration. Not to forget that Snape had some very good defenses. It was only because of this that Harry managed to get through without being an expert.

So Harry gave a final push –

And he was met with a mind full of information about this new world– it really _was_ a new world damn it. It was overwhelming him. There was just too much information for him to handle. Tiny memories with little facts were filtered through his head, before he actually started to focus.

'I need to knock him out.' He decided, before another thought struck him.

"But I also need information on how to survive." Harry muttered to himself, but knowing that he didn't have much time. This was straining enough as it was. There was no time to look through it all. The sensation of something pulling him back let him know that the ninja wasn't appreciating his intrusion at all either. He was fighting it and it was working. Harry wouldn't be able to stick around for too long. And even if there was, it would be too much to take remember

'No language then.' Harry told himself after he started to look for the information that he would need. "I want to survive." He called out on the spur, calling out for the basic information that one would need. The information appeared, though he nearly regretted it from the pain that it brought along. His head started pounding and he felt himself starting to slip after a while.

"What was going on to fight like that?" He continued, trying to ignore the pull that was getting steadily stronger.

Memories responded, resulting Harry to groan out in pain.

He was at his limit already. He had to retreat.

Just before he decided to go, another question popped up in his head.

"Where are the wizards?" He managed to growl out. He paused as he heard the answer.

It was as he had feared.

'Just as I thought.' He sighed. With a heavy face, the wizard let himself be carried along with the pull and left the man's mind.

Though not before giving the man a rough mental push back, which instantly knocked the ninja out. At least, Harry hoped it had.

After all, it was the reason for coming here in the first place.

~Back to reality~

"My poor head." Harry groaned out in pain as he came back to the living.

His head felt like it was exploding. His body felt heavy and he had an incredible urge to sleep for days without any distribution.

He blinked groggily as he suddenly found the reason why his body felt so heavy.

He pushed the limp body of the crazy ninja-man – shinobi his mind supplied - roughly away from him, sneering in disgust. At least that had been productive, as he was now vaguely aware of the story behind the fight that had just occurred. Everything was very fuzzy though. He wondered if he would be able to remember all of the information that he had seen.

Still, Harry was glad that whatever he had done, it had worked. The man was unconscious and he had managed to retrieve some information at the same time.

Had it not been for this huge headache, then that must have been one of his brightest idea he had had in a long time.

'My head.' Harry clutched his head rather pathetically. 'How the hell did Snape deal with it?'

He probably drowned all those potions of his, he thought, before turning back to the matter at hand.

'Alright, so those people really are _ninja…'_ Harry concluded as he shakily heaved himself up to his feet.

"Of all the placed to end up…" He muttered to himself as he glanced down at the unconscious man. "It had to be one filled with crazy serial murderers…"

A shiver ran down his spine as he realised just how much stronger those people were.

'What if this level is normal? I need to get stronger if I want to survive any other encounter.' He thought shakily.

But that would come later.

Now, he should probably make sure that the red-head – 'Traitor of the Leaf' he realised as he looked at the sign of the headband - was out a little longer. Who knew how quickly those people could wake up? He needed some rope or something. Giving his head once final rub, the wizard crouched back down to search the man for anything useful.

It seems like he was in a world where ninja were considered normal 'warriors' to protect various 'hidden', or not so hidden, villages. Each village was rules by a Kage that had near complete control over the military power. Apparently there had also been a war that had ended quite some time ago that still haunted quite a few people. Then about a year after that there had been a… demon attack a couple of years ago?

Harry cursed some more. Demons? Seriously?

According to the man's memories there had also been a massacre of the 'Uchiha' clan after which there was only young survivor, which the red-head had been told to spy on. Just as he had tried to leave the village to get to the 'Sound' – where did they make up these names? - unnoticed his position as spy had come to the light.

He had fled immediately and they had sent these hunters after him to silence him.

There were also many little fact that Harry had managed to pick up, but there was only so much that the wizard's mind could take. He knew the world's map at least and it didn't look like his own at all.

'Shit, I really am in another world.'

Growling out in frustration and suddenly feeling very out of place, Harry turned to the traitor and held out his hand to hit him with a 'stupefy'. He pushed down his frustration when it didn't work.

'Please don't stop me from using any of my magic in this world.' He thought desperately as he tried again. 'Maybe if I'm closer?' He tried once more.

Nothing.

Rather panicky now, Harry eventually he touched the man's arm and tried again.

Harry sighed in relief as a small red light flashed around his hand. He could use his magic at least. Still, to have to touch someone or something in order to use it… Had this to do with this other energy – chakra, his mind reminded him – in the air?

This would be a serious handicap. He would have to figure out how to get his magic back to normal.

If that was even possible.

'Damn it.'

Finally calmed down, Harry proceeded to pull out the rope that he found in the man's odd pouch that he had worn on his belt. Staring at the pouch for a while, Harry shrugged and attached it on his own belt. After a couple of tries while touching the fabric, he managed to transfigure his trousers into baggier ones as well. It would at least give him some more space for free movement.

Plucking at his jeans, he noticed that he really needed some new clothes. If the outfits of the two men were considered to be the standard clothing, then he would be seriously standing out in the crowd.

Well at least his brown jacket would do, even though it had had seen better times.

Shifting the rope around the heavy figure, Harry realised that he had absolutely no clue on how to tie the man up. After all, he had to make sure that the ninja couldn't escape once he woke up. With a sigh, Harry decided to improvise. All he had to do, was to make sure that the hold of the rope was tight, that the hands were bound toget- now wait. A memory flashed in warning.

'Those… justu?' He thought they were called. 'need to use hand signs with two hands.'

Well better safe than sorry.

Frowning, Harry tied up the arms on the man's back, while making sure that the hands were kept away from each other. Using his foot to keep the man on his place, he pulled the rope a little tighter as he decided to copy one of those restraining jackets that he had seen once. Keeping this idea in mind, he was also sure to bind the man's feet and knees together and to take out every scroll and knife that were hidden on his person and to put them into his new pouch.

After a while he wiped his hands clean on the side of his leg as he took a step back to inspect his handiwork.

'Well, if that is not going to work I'm not sure what would.' He nodded, as he rolled up the rope that had been left over.

As he put the rope back in his newly obtained pouch, they were quite useful actually, his fingers brushed against some kind of sticky paper. Curious, he retrieved it form his pocket and stared at the strange drawing on the paper.

It was a kanji. That he knew.

The wizard frowned.

'What does that mean?' He wondered, staring at the strange sign on the square paper.

Turning the paper around, the green-eyed youth glanced at the sticky side of the paper and then to the man. Harry wasn't sure if he wanted the man to become noisy when he woke up. Not to mention that they might be able to do something purely by talking out loud. It was a wizard thing, but it wouldn't surprise him if it was possible.

Harry wouldn't dare to rule that possibility out yet. Who knew what those people could do.

Nodding to himself, Harry walked over and stuck the paper – which unknown to him was actually an inactivated exploding tag - over the ninja's mouth.

That would have to do.

Standing up and brushing off his hands in a rather nervous manner once more, Harry turned his attention to the next target.

'Now what to do with that guy?'

As he neared the man, he suddenly noticed the small pool of blood that was gathering around the man and his eyes widened in horror.

'Shit!'

Rushing forward, he gently tried to find the place where the blood came from. It was a cut in the man's side and the knife was still in it. Harry cursed himself for not noticing or even checking before.

Then he cursed some more. Harry didn't know _everything_ about the anatomy of the human body, but he knew that it wasn't healthy to have a knife there. Too many important organs could have been ruptured. Gently, feeling much like throwing up as he did, he pulled the knife out of the man's side.

The bleeding got worse, but Harry was already charging his magic to stop the blood flow. Contact with the blood usually wasn't really necessary, but he had read somewhere that blood was a good conductor for magic. Maybe it would be able to replace the effectiveness that his wand would have had.

Harry concentrated on urging the energy to return the tissues to 'what they had been before' and watched the wound close ever so slowly. It would not be completely healed, but the man wouldn't bleed to death either.

He let out a sigh in relief.

He was about to wipe off his hands again but stopped. He stared at his bloody hands and the situation slowly but surely caught up to him.

A violent shudder ran down his spine.

'Alright, now it is really time to go.' Harry decided.

He stopped to look at the two men before he turned. If the red-head woke up before the masked man and managed to get free…

Maybe he was paranoia, but the thought wouldn't leave his head. Harry let out a sigh. He had pretty much figured out that the man was the bad guy and that the masked man was the good guy. He couldn't let that happen to the masked fighter.

The least he could do was to wake him up.

He turned back to the man's side and crouched down. Removing the strange mask took some effort and he couldn't help but stare at the still-masked face for a moment. A stay of silver-hair tugged out the of the black bandana that he wore. Still, he couldn't be much older than him, Harry figured. Maybe a couple of years, but not more than that. It only took a moment before his attention was drawn to the vertical scar that crossed the man's left eye. Harry shivered slightly at what it implied. He glanced briefly at another mask that was covering the lower part of the man's face.

Was he hiding something?

'Must be part of the uniform.' He decided and pushed his curiosity away.

There was no need for him to take a look. It would be creepy if he did.

Instead, he reached out to touch the man's forehead. He absently realised that he was putting blood on the man's head, but couldn't bring himself to care.

"_Rennervate_" He whispered.

Harry saw the man twitch in reply and the wizard let the man's forehead go, leaving a bloody handprint behind.

He backed away and to make sure that he had enough space between them and took off running. There was a yell behind him, but the spell on his ears made it quite easy – almost natural – to ignore it.

The wizard needed some place to progress all this new information. He needed some place to stay.

'But where?'

~ About three weeks later ~

For all the frustration that it brought him, there was one thing that Harry absolutely loved about this new world.

This was the change in gravity in contrast to his own world.

He had no clue whether he was right, but he had come up with a theory.

For whatever reason, the gravity in his dimension seemed to be stronger compared to this world's gravity. Which probably meant that the human bodies had adapted to force that constantly pushed them down. Since this included everyone, there was a certain average strength on Earth. Harry never considered himself to be strong and fast before. He had good reflexes yes, but he never really had strong muscles. He was too scrawny for that.

However, in this world, he would be far above average. The gravity was lighter and his body – that was used to a far bigger strain – was not used to this. He probably had much denser muscles compared to other people as well. Hence, he felt much lighter, which in turn gave him the idea of having newfound speed, strength and endurance.

Harry didn't mind this at all. Actually, he relished ever moment of this new advantage and explored the possibilities with fervor.

It was absolutely thrilling to be able to run so quickly without gasping for breath within a minute.

It was a good way to take his mind off the anger and frustration that he felt for being stuck here.

Ron would have loved it. Even Hermoine would be easily swayed. The Weasley twins would have been big trouble.

Running at the moment, he pushed himself to his limits, trying to flee the memories. He passed another tree and started zigzagging. He jumped over a bush and run a few steps up a tree before pushing himself off again. He managed to grasp the branch overhead and swung himself forward to hop on the next branch and to jump down on the ground again.

Eventually, the wizard slowed his current sprint to a jogging pace. His breathing was heavier and faster, but for once the wizard enjoyed the strain he felt.

About a week ago, he had finally realised that brooding didn't do anything. The lack of anger and frustration in his stomach made him feel strangely empty though.

It made him feel restless. He wasn't going anywhere. There was no purpose for him here.

He was just running around, trying to find something that he could do.

Letting out a large and heavy sigh, Harry leaned against a tree to rest. These excercises were necessary for him to maintain his strength or else he would lose his advantage. He refused to let that happen. It had saved him a couple of times already.

He had been wandering around for quite some time. It were only little exercises like these that provided him with entertainment as well. He hadn't been able to talk to anyone yet.

There had been one time that he had come across a village. It had taken him a while to decide to actually enter the village and he decided that he would leave as soon as possible. Someone else might have called it sneaking in and out.

So, in the middle of the night Harry, had 'acquired' enough water and food to last him for a while. He wondered how the people would react to his golden coin.

At least he had enough goods to survive. In the meantime, he could practice on mastering a minimal version of _Aguamenti... _in his mouth, since he couldn't do it any other way.

He usually sucked at wandless magic. For some reason though, his wandless magic came easier in this world than in his old world. Maybe it had to do with the vibe in the air, or the trip to this place at made him connect to his magic closer. He couldn't say that he really knew why.

He hadn't been expecting it on his first try either.

Which was why, he had nearly managed to get himself drowned a couple of times practicing that spell. He had been quick to learn that he should practice while keeping his mouth open while hovering above a small cup when he did.

Luckily once he had finally mastered it even a tiny bit, he didn't need to near the village again and he continued on his way. His magic provided him with most of the other basic needs. Still, the aimless roaming was making him restless. Now that he didn't even have his friends to support him – it had taken many nights to get over that - he felt depressed again.

He missed them so much.

'What am I supposed to do?' He wondered, drawing his hand through his dark hair.

'I can't simply keep practicing wandless magic forever. But where else can I go? People don't like people who don't have the right money.'

He frowned.

'And no way, that I was going to show those thugs my gold either.'

He would get raided for sure.

The silence in the forest around him allowed him to pick up the sound of a crash and a painful shout. It unsurprisingly caught his attention and Harry rushed towards the scene. He stared for a moment past the tree to see whether it was safe. He didn't want to get in another fight.

There had been one drunken Missing-nin that Harry had crossed before. It had been a slight mistake on his part. He should have realised that the strange energy in the abandoned house had meant something. Still, Harry decided to blame the near-death experience on his lack of sleep.

After all, the little wooden house had seemed very inviting and Harry hadn't really considered the fact that someone else might be already sleeping in it. The ninja hadn't been happy to be disturbed. Harry on the other hand, had been very happy that the man was foolish enough to get drunk.

It was only with this luck that he hadn't been skewered by those crazy 'senbon needles'.

That didn't stop Harry from making a quick visit in his mind though. The wizard had been feeling quite desperate for some new information and he was glad that it worked. His new catch included a little bit of the language that they used in this world. Communicating with the language itself would be problematic however, as he only could recognize a limited amount of words. He couldn't read and write either. For Harry, who came from a culture in which everyone was able to do that, it was incredibly frustrating.

Maybe he should have visited more villagers. It might go against his morals, but the lack of information was wearing him down.

The wizard glanced around once more, but he couldn't find or sense anything.

The only figure there was an old man that was cradling his leg and grimacing in pain.

Deeming the situation to be safe, he ran forwards to help the elder man that had seemingly slipped and ended up falling of a steep hill. It had been raining for a while yesterday, so it must have still been slippery.

"Ok?" Harry managed to ask the short and sturdy grey-haired man.

The man had a bald spot on the top of his head, but he was trying to hide it by combing his rather fuzzy but short hair over it. He wore was a plain grey kimono. Wrinkles on the man's face showed him to be at least sixty and only the wrinkles in the corner of his eyes let Harry know that he probably laughed a lot.

He wasn't laughing at the moment though. He didn't even seem very happy about his presence.

Instead, the man frowned at him and said something to him, but Harry couldn't make out much of the sentences. Frowning, he glanced at the man's eyes and tried to get the man's thoughts, which were more in form of images and emotions in replacement to the words.

'His leg is probably broken.' Harry mused as he helped the man sit up.

"Hurt." Harry stated, pointing to the leg.

The man started talking rapidly again and this time Harry couldn't really follow him. He did sound kind of hostile though. 'Not a lover of strangers either huh?' Harry grimaced, which caused the man to look at him strangely.

"Deaf." Harry stated gesturing to his ears.

Whatever he had done after he had entered the world, Harry had still been unable to cancel the magic of the Surdo in his ears. He didn't know how much magic he had used in his desperate attempt to cut off that awful sound but it would probably take a while before it would leave him. 'I hope my ears haven't been bleeding back then.' He thought.

That would be even worse.

It could take years! Blood magic had been partly banned for that particular possible side-effect.

Unsurprisingly, upon finding out, Harry had been quite frustrated with this possible situation and nearly destroyed a tree in the process.

The old man stared at him for a while, seemingly suspicious before he suddenly started yelling very loudly. The volume of his voice would have made anyone winch at least ever so slightly, but Harry merely blinked at him.

It was after all the advantage of the spell. It wouldn't make him deaf per se. It would merely readjust all the sounds that entered his ears and reduce them to a very soft volume. For example, the snoring of Ron would become ignorable but he would still be able to hear a soft whisper calling out his name. It was also a great spell to use after having stayed up a whole night getting drunk too. Not that he had experience with that of course.

The man in front of him sighed and nodded at him. It seemed that he was giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Harry smiled somewhat sheepishly at the man, before he got a little more curious about the man's broken leg. He remembered the spell that Pomfrey had once thought him when he had been incredibly bored in the Hospital Wing. Of course, she had forbidden him from using it without her presence, but there was not much she could do right now.

It had worked the one time that he had been able to try it before. So it should work now as well right?

"I heal." He managed, unsure if he got the pronunciation right. He pointed to himself then to the leg.

The man's eyes widened before he searched the boy's appearance for any sign of being a ninja. He did have a pouch, he realised. But other than that, the man couldn't find anything.

"Ninja?" He asked tapping his forehead.

Harry frowned for a while, silently glad that people had the tendency to talk and gesture at the same time, before he shook his head.

"No ninja." He told the man. "Heal."

The man shook his head and pushed him away, trying to stand up. He was not going to let some kid heal him without having any experience. He might be old, but he still liked to be able to move.

"No no! Hurt!" Harry protested, trying to get the stubborn man to sit down. He was going to ruin his leg that way.

The man grimaced as a wave of pain made him reluctantly comply. Letting out a frustrated sign, he gestured to the boy and then to the leg.

"Go ahead." He muttered. He had too much to do to be stuck in the house for months. The harvest was a very good one, but that meant a lot of work. If he was going to be half-invalid, he might as well go all the way.

Smiling, Harry gently shifted the cloth of the baggy trousers to the upper leg to get a better look. Letting his hands hover above the leg, Harry whispered the incarnation under his breath. The wizard frowned when it didn't do anything. The old man stared at him with a strange expression. Gently putting his hands on the leg, Harry tried again. There was a slight improvement, but it wasn't working yet.

'Wait. Blood?' Harry wondered as he remembered the fight from about two weeks ago.

He nodded to himself and got out a knife out of his pouch, causing the man to freeze in terror. He started shouting, but Harry paid him no attention as he bit his lip and tried to cut himself in his hands as gently as possible. The man immediately stopped with shouting when he realised what the wizard was doing. Instead he stared at the wizard as if he was crazy until Harry put the knife away again.

Harry simply ignored the look, too focused on this new experiment.

The old man however was completely shocked.

'Who the hell is this kid?'

He stared at the… exotic looking – his eyes were different and he looked sickly pale – young man hovering over his leg. He was… different.

Seeing the young man put his bloodied hands on the man's leg, he was about to protest again, but he stilled when he felt a strange sensation running up his leg.

'Is this really one of those healing-jutsu that those ninja use?' The elderly man pondered in wonder as he felt his leg go numb and tingle itself at the same time. 'Different…' The word popped up in his head again.

This was amazing. At least, it certainly felt like it was. 'If this actually works...'

The man's mind immediately went back to one of the young women in his village. She was still young and always wanted to help out, but she has had a limp for a couple of years that made walking difficult for her. A sweetheart like her didn't deserve that.

They had tried to get a healer to help her, but he said that the nerve damage in the leg was too much. A ninja might have been healed, but as the civilians didn't have as much chakra to support their own injuries during the healing, it would only get worse.

He glanced back to the stranger and stared at the boy's brilliant green eyes. They seemed genuine enough. Still, by the boy's appearance he had been wandering around for a while. What did that mean? Was he running away from something? He didn't want to bring problems to his village.

In the meantime, Harry was surprised by how quickly his healing was going. That never happened with wizards before, but maybe that was the point. Pomfrey had told him that, by nature, wizards were actually a little resistant to the magic of the healers. This was why only certain people were cut out to become healers. They would have to be able to manipulate or to imitate the magic of the patient. However, these people didn't have magic, so it would be far easier to command his magic to follow his intentions.

'I never thought this was possible for me to do.' Harry mused, feeling suddenly very happy that he had been able to help the man.

Satisfied, Harry drew back his magic.

The older man was shaken out of his thought when the wizard redrew his hands and wiped them off on his black baggy trousers.

"Hurt?" Harry asked, turning back to the shocked old man.

The man moved his leg and could only shake his head in surprise.

"What are you running from?" He asked the young man that was looking him in the eye. The teen frowned at him, before his gaze went to the man's lips and the elderly man repeated the sentence.

"Running?" He repeated, pronouncing the words as if he said them for the first time. He didn't pronounce it right, but seeing as the kid was deaf, that didn't surprise the man. He moved his middle and index finger in a walking fashion, to make sure that he got the right idea. The elderly man nodded.

"No. No running." Harry managed to say.

Harry decided to change topic and put his hand on his chest. "Harry." He stated slowly.

Again the odd pronunciation.

"Hari?" The man repeated. What an odd name. No last name either?

The boy frowned for a moment before he nodded slowly. The old man smiled at him for the first time and pushed himself off the ground. The teenager immediately sprang up to help him and once he was sure that he wouldn't fall, the elderly man bowed to the young man.

"Thank you Hari-san. I'm Noburu." He stated, making sure to articulate very well as he said his name. He repeated it a couple of times as he watched the young teenager trying to grasp the sounds that his lips were making by watching them move.

Harry ever so slowly tried to grasp his name. As soon as it resembled the sound 'New-boo-roo-sah' ever so slight, the man nodded. It would do for now.

"If you are not running, then why do you look like that?" The man asked, gesturing extensively to get the message across to the boy. First he shook his hand with a pointed finger, then made walking motions with his index and middle finger, pointed to his head as if in wonder and then gestured to the kid's appearance.

The boy looked down at himself, taking in the worn-out clothes and his somewhat dirty – it would be even worse if he hadn't finally mastered the wandless form of a light 'scourgify' again a few days ago – appearance.

The teenagers shifted uncomfortably as he suddenly looked very tired and pained, shocking the man.

"Look. New home." Harry eventually told the man, once again rubbing his hands against his clothes to clean the blood. He shrugged uncomfortably and then looked down at his shoes, most likely thinking back to his old home.

Noburu sighed, knowing that in these lands, that could mean anything. He wondered what had happened to the teenager, but decided not to pry.

There was a long pause between the two of them.

Noburo slowly nodded his head and took a step forward and gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulders. 'Hari' jumped ever so slightly and stared at him.

"Hari-san. Do you want to stay at my place in my village for a while? It is the least I can do." He asked, trying to find the right gestures to make the teenager understand.

Who knows how long it could have taken before someone would have found him. 'It is the least I can do and if I can get Ume some help, I will never forgive myself if I let him run off like that.'

Whether the boy understood his gestures, had read his lips or understood his intentions, the man wasn't sure. He didn't really care either as the teenager gave him a relieved smile that made the man feel a little better.

"Hai!" The boy stated, bowing forward in gratitude.

Harry felt relieved. Wherever they were going, he knew that the man's intentions were good – even though he there was a small part that took Harry with him because of his healing abilities. The emotions and images that he had managed to pull away from the man unnoticed, told him as much.

He finally had a place to stay.

Even if it was for only a little while.

Mentally, Harry felt a weigh fall off his shoulders for a moment.

For a moment, he dared to believe that things were looking up.

**~End chapter 3~**

Awww… Ickle Harrikins is making friends! Alright maybe not really, but still! I'm so proud of him!

For those who wonder. Yeah, Harry will not immediately go to Konoha and the like. He will first stabilise himself by living a more peaceful life. At least for a while. After all, "trouble finds" him eventually. Now I have two **questions** for you guys. Only for those who feel like answering them of course.

One I _might_ kind of… ever so _slighty_… just a tiny bit… be considering to give Harry a second identity – not superHarry either – to create a little more action. So if this happens, _metaphorically_ speaking, do any of you guys have a nice name for him to go by?

Second. Yeah Harry will have to meet someone eventually. Who do you think it should be? Kakashi? I have various scenes in my head and I just can't choose.

Anyway that was it for today! I probably won't be able to update as fast as I have done before. It could actually take a bit longer, since I will be once again very busy. We will see, shall we?

I would love to hear from you guys (again)! So please review!

~Dreamyin

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	4. Chapter 4

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself.

**Beta: Beloved Daughter **was so kind to beta this for me. Thank you!

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night my hopefully-faithful readers! Once again, thank you very much for the nice reviews! I'm still on a roll, thanks to some new inspiration and a lot of positive reviews. At first I wrote this chapter in the 'descriptive looking back on it' sense, but I wasn't satisfied, so I rewrote the whole thing. I like to think that it was worth the effort though, so hopefully you agree!

Anyway, Kakashi seems to be a very likable character to meet Harry at first. We will see! Who knows where my inspiration will lead me to? Also I'm still busy looking for a name for Harry, but I got some help from a very nice reviewer who has some knowledge of Japanese so I hope that it will work out!

Also, a little bit of good news for me! I managed not to fail my exam even though having uploaded the last chapter at that time! It was very close though. Phew!

Now, please enjoy the chapter and please remember to Review!

**Chapter 4: Make it Happen**

~About a day later ~

Rays of sunshine slipped through the cracks and small holes of the old curtain that was drawn in front of the window. As the sun rose higher into the sky, it eventually managed to hit the eyes of a sleeping teenager, whose eyes twitched in acknowledgement.

Time to wake up.

'How long have I been sleeping?' The barely conscious teenager wondered drowsily.

The figure stretched and a content moan escaped his lips and echoed through the small room.

Then, realizing that he didn't have to get out of bed immediately – something that hadn't happened for a long time - the barely conscious teenager turned around once more, flipped over his pillow and buried his head into the cooler side. Harry's stomach was full and his thirst was stilled. He hadn't felt so content for a while. He slowly opened his eyes again and stared glassily ahead of him, his mind thinking back to the dream that he had had.

'Ginny… Hermione and Ron. They will be alright.' He thought. 'I will have to start a new life now. That is what they would have wanted.'

He hummed in agreement with himself and suddenly felt an odd sensation course through his body. It took some time to properly describe the feeling. He was feeling _safe_.

'I'm safe.'

The realization dawned on him as he slowly started to wake up from the bed that this Noburu-san – that just ever so slightly reminded him of Dumbledore - had told him to sleep in after the teenager had practically carried the man on his back to the village. Noburu's leg might have been healed, but it would need rest or it could possibly undo everything that Harry had managed to fix. It had taken ten minutes of being extremely stubborn to get the man to agree.

Then again, having someone that scrawny looking give you a piggyback at that age, must not have been very reassuring.

It had been so easy for him to lift the man, which made Harry once again appreciate this newfound strength. Of course, Harry had been careful to exaggerate how much effort it had taken him to get them back. To return the favor, Noburu had made sure to provide him some shelter and get him some food before practically sending him to bed almost immediately.

Harry had tried to protest, but the look that the man had shot him had stopped him from voicing it.

Old people could be so manipulative. Not to forget that the looks that they could send you were plain scary – he was absently reminded of Professor McGonagall.

Not that the young wizard was even considering complaining about the offer though.

Harry turned the pillow around and sighed in bliss as he found another cold part of the pillow.

The wizard felt simply _amazing_. He hadn't felt so relaxed in a long time. There was nothing he needed to do. There was no need to remain half-awake during the night like he had been the last three weeks. There was no need to waste a lot of energy and effort in making even the simplest ward that would alert him if anyone approached.

It was so strange to actually feel like he had nothing to be paranoid about. It would surely make him become restless in the future, but he didn't want to think about that now. He knew that the man Noburu wouldn't harm him, since the wizard had seen that in the man's mind. He squashed the guilt for doing so a little easier now. He had needed the reassurance and the extra little information about the language had been a big bonus.

No, it wasn't in the man's personality to kill or hurt him and beside the fact that the man was a good person, he also deemed Harry to be too valuable.

That was a huge relief.

Harry lazily stretched again – just because he could - and blinked, feeling a sense of ultimate relaxation spread over him. His spine popped a couple of times and he groaned contently. He let himself lean to the side of the bed until he over the edge and let his arms fall down with the gravity. Hanging upside down, he closed his eyes once more. He was relieved that the man had a real bed and not one of those thin mats that they usually slept on.

He relaxed in that position for a while and made sure that he didn't fall out of the bed by hooking his ankles at the edge on the other side of the bed.

"Hari."

'Err…' Harry suddenly thought as he realized that the man was probably standing in the doorway and was watching him in this rather odd pose. He had nearly reacted to his name, Harry realized. Fortunately, he managed to change his reaction just in time, making it look like was just stretching lazily once more.

He blinked owlishly as he 'suddenly' noticed the man standing in the doorway and stared at him, before blushing.

He scrambled back to sit up, but managed to let his ankle slip away from the edge, resulting his eyes to widen.

'Oh damn i-'

The teenager hit the floor with a thud. That had not been part of the plan.

Harry groaned out and opened his eyes, staring up at the old man now hovering over him. His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he noted the amusement visible on the man's face.

Harry huffed and rubbed his head as he sat up.

He glanced toward Noburu and saw the man staring at his forehead – more specifically his scar - that was now covered by his hair again.

Harry froze.

'Shit. My scar.' Harry cursed himself mentally for not being more careful. The man must have spotted it when he was hanging upside down. Harry was sure that the man would have found out eventually if he really was allowed to stay here, but it was a sensitive subject for Harry and he wanted to avoid as much questions as possible.

Luckily the man didn't even make a comment about it, but kept it to sending him a subtle puzzled look.

"Clean up and then come to me." The man said instead and tried to find the right gestures to accompany the sentence.

Just before he walked out of the room he stopped and turned around.

"Can you write?" He asked, inspiration shining in his eyes as he made a movement with his hands as if he was writing something on the palm of his other hand.

Harry suddenly felt nervous. He had not thought about that! Knowing that he would be in even more trouble if he were to lie, he nervously shook his head and stared at the ground.

"Read?" He bit his lip as he thought about the few kanji that he had managed to pick up from the people's mind that he had encountered… which weren't many people.

He held up a hand and acted as if he was holding something very tiny between his index finger and thumb. "Much little." He muttered.

The man looked pensive for a moment, before he slowly nodded and left the room. It didn't escape Harry's observation that the man's eyes looked more wary then before. Harry just hoped that he hadn't made himself look suspicious.

'Did I mess up again?' He pondered worriedly.

The wizard sighed heavily.

'Well, it's not like I can do anything about it.' He thought as he stood up he finally took notice of the bundle of clothes that the man had left behind. He held the pair of light brown trousers up and noted with annoyance that they were too big.

'Or I'm just too short and thin.' A traitorous part of his mind thought, which he plainly ignored.

'Ah well, it is not like I'm not used to wearing clothes that are slightly too big.' He thought, thinking back to Dudley. He winced as he thought about the sizes that his cousin had. These could be considered skinny compared to those of his cousin. No, he would manage this just fine.

'I wonder what he wants from me though.' Harry though as he quickly changed.

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

After all, the wizard had a feeling that he would have to prove his word.

~ Later that day ~

He studied the girl in front of him carefully.

She looked normal enough. She had the Asian-feeling to her appearance, just like every other person that Harry had met so far.

He watched her move her hand over her hair to tug away the straw that kept escaping her braid. He couldn't help but expect her to laugh at any moment, as she had a slightly bubbly face. Yet, her dark eyes were anything but laughing.

Harry suddenly felt very much like an outsider – which he was, but that still didn't mean that he liked feeling like one.

Said dark eyes were trying to pick him apart.

Harry matched her look with a blank expression, not showing how much her stare was bothering him.

'So this is that Ume that Noburu was thinking about.' He mused and glanced towards Ume's parents who were talking rather rapidly with the old man that had brought him here. The man hadn't explained much to him yet, but he was sure that he would after having finished what seemed to look like convinced the girl's parents of something.

Noburu had it all planned out, Harry realized. The man was just waiting for Harry to see the girl, for him to talk to the girl, for him like her and to eventually make him feel too guilty if he were to refuse his help. Then, he would feel like he wanted to help on his own accord.

In other words, he was exactly acting like the sneaky old man that Harry had judged him to be. He would certainly fit into Slytherin, Harry decided.

For some odd reason, it made the wizard like him. He had learned by experience to respect qualities like that.

Besides being Slyterin-like, Noburu was a very realistic man. To him, someone had to earn his place and take advantage of all the possibilities that he found on his way.

'Though the fact that one of his priorities is the well-being of the people in the village makes him different from most other Slytherins'. Harry thought, nodding to himself.

Much more admirable too.

Harry should know.

The wizard watched in slight amusement as he saw the parents furiously gesture at the man in their frustration. He could understand their reluctance to let him touch her daughter. After all, they didn't know him. He had appeared out of nowhere and was _somehow_ capable of healing their daughter that even ninja couldn't heal.

'Yeah, I would be skeptical as hell too.' He concluded and then turned his attention back to the girl that was still openly staring at him. He twitched slightly as she kept staring him in the eyes.

Then out of nowhere, just before he felt like he couldn't hold down a twitch any longer, she started talking to him in a rather rapid manner.

'Too fast!' Harry mentally sighed in annoyance since he had no clue what she was talking about. So he acted like he mentally practiced himself how to act. He smiled shyly, somewhat sheepishly and pointed to his ear while shaking his head.

"Deaf." He told her quietly. 'Did I pronounce that right?' He couldn't help but wonder.

The girl frowned and looked at him somewhat suspiciously.

'I can see that she is her parent's daughter.' Harry thought dryly as he was now being openly scrutinized.

The wizard was glad that a wave on the side caught his attention and he focused his attention on Noburu who had seemingly managed to convince the parents to calm down.

"Hari-kun. Could you please heal her?" He asked. Harry frowned, as he wasn't able to understand him completely. He already knew what he was planning of course, but without obvious gestures he couldn't reply.

Noburu grumbled something under his breath. Harry only caught the word 'writing' before the man pointed at Harry, then to Ume. He then motioned to the wizard again and pointed to his leg. "Heal" He repeated slowly before motioning to Ume again.

'Well at least he is trying.' Harry thought in amusement, having a feeling that the man normally wasn't this patient with anyone.

'I will be a good practice for him then.' Harry chuckled mentally as he nodded to the man and pointed at Ume.

"Hurt." He said, pointing to the leg.

Surprisingly, Harry had been able to spot the way the girl had been avoiding to use the part of the leg as she had sat down on the chair. He was fairly sure the problem was her knee too.

Still he did have to ask.

"Where?"

Ume pointed to her leg and started talking to her parents, most likely asking what was going on. They apparently told her, seeing as her eyes widened for a moment as her head snapped to Harry in surprise. Her eyes were hopeful for a moment before they dimmed.

"No." She stated firmly and started rapidly talking back to her parents.

Then Noburu said something and gestured to his leg. Her eyes widened again and stared at Harry once more who was starting to feel quite self-conscious by now.

"Where, where?" He asked pointing to her leg, hoping to get this over with.

There was a long silence before she motioned to her knee. Harry couldn't help but feel slightly smug that it had matched his suspicion. Calmly, the wizard stood up and crouched next to her chair and plainly ignored what seemed to be the protest of the parents. Noburu barked something at them and they quieted ever so reluctantly.

Harry glanced up at the girl and looked at her questioningly.

"I see?"

The girl sighed and nodded reluctantly, but Harry could see the hope in her eyes.

'I just hope that I'm able to help her.' Harry thought as he gestured to the long skirt that she was wearing, keeping himself from blushing at the implication by slipping into a more professional mindset. She pulled it up to just above her knee and Harry was glad that she wore a couple of tight shorts underneath.

'That must be the only reason why her parents didn't stop her.' He mused and started looking around for something sharp. He turned around to Noburu.

"Newbooro-san…Knife?"

The man nodded – ignoring the wrong pronunciation of this name this time - and frowned when he had to calm down the parents again. The man and woman had unsurprisingly not been very happy to hear that word come out of his mouth after nearing their daughter. He turned back to Ume who had suddenly grown very pale.

"No, no, no. No you knife. I knife." He tried to calm her down, but only seemed to make her more confused.

Harry mentally face-palmed himself.

Stupid language barrier.

It took a while before everyone had calmed down again, but Harry finally got his knife. He carefully sliced his hand open while trying to seem as harmless as he could be with a knife in his hands. He hissed in discontent as he drew blood. He couldn't help but be grateful that the magic also healed his own wounds after a while.

'My hands would be completely scarred otherwise.' Harry mused as he glanced at a very light pink line that he still had from the healing from yesterday. It was the only indication of what happened and Harry was pretty sure that it would heal without scarring much.

He hissed slightly as he cut his other hand as and painlessly as possible as well.

Acting on an unspoken agreement, Noburu took the knife from him while the parents put their daughter's foot on the chair that Harry had sat on.

Harry carefully looked the girl in the eye once again. He gave in to his curiosity and allowed himself to try to read her surface thoughts about him.

Ume was very nervous. She didn't know him. What the hell was he doing? She had been trying to accept that she would never be able to run normally again and then this strange teenager came here with the old man, who claimed that he could heal her. Yeah right. Still there might be a chance tha- Harry pulled himself back.

Harry blinked for a moment, shaking the thoughts and impression from the girl out of his mind – and automatically tried to remember a couple of words that had lingered. He had to be careful with this girl. She seemed to have nearly no walls to protect her mind at all.

'That or I need to cut back on the use of _Legilimens_.' Though Harry was well aware that he wouldn't stop using it.

Not in a situation like this.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he took a calming breath and then he turned his focus to his magic. Deeming himself to be ready, he turned to the female next to him.

"Ready?" He asked her, making sure to make eye contact without letting himself be dragged with her thoughts.

There was a tiny nod and Harry started to focus on the magic that he had been preparing to flow into his hand.

There was a slight shudder in the girl's leg as his bloody hands made contact, each hand on one side of the knee. The moment that he urged his magic to enter her knee, he heard her gasp in surprise. She whispered something to her parents, who suddenly seemed to be a lot more hopeful and quiet.

Trying to get a feel of what the problem was, Harry slowly started to move his hands across the skin. He ended up at the back on the knee. The cartilage seemed to have taken some heavy damage and had calcified into bone tissue. It was certainly something that would have to be kept an eye on. If it the process were to continue she would eventually be practically unable to move her joint at all.

It was something he could possibly turn back because she was still so young but it would take a lot of energy. She was lucky that the damage was still minimal. He might be able to repair it in one session if he was lucky. Still, not only would it be tiring, it would be a tricky process as well, since Harry had to be very specific and careful with is magic.

"Much Time." He spoke up and frowned. He should be able to get it done, though barely. After having such a good night of sleep his magic had calmed down considerably, but it would still leave him very tired.

He had been traveling for a long time and was not completely rested. Still, he would manage.

'What will happen after I did this? Will they cast me out?' A sudden maybe irrational fear gripped him and nearly broke his concentration.

"Newboro-san." He called out.

The man stepped into his line of sight and nodded at him, a worried expression on his face.

"I... I heal. Make this new Home?" Harry struggled to find new words and let his hope shine through his words while keeping as much focus on the leg as possible. He felt so stupid, asking something like that in the middle of the healing, but he felt himself becoming nervous.

That was something that should be eliminated at soon as possible. '_Don't heal when you are emotional. Your magic might react._' He remembered Pomfrey once telling him.

The man eyes widened ever so slightly and looked at him with saddened understanding.

"Yes." He said somewhat kindly, nodding his head and patted himself on the chest. "If you are a good man, then I have a new home for you." He pointed at Harry.

Harry made eye contact with him, read his thoughts and that was all he needed. The old man might be sneaky as hell, but he practically wore his emotions on his sleeve when it came to his mind. If he didn't prove to be a danger to his village and help it prosper like he was doing now, he wouldn't hesitate to make him one of them.

The wizard visibly relaxed and Ume took another quick breath as the odd but strangely comfortable feeling in her knee intensified.

"Arigato." The teenager mumbled and his eyes became determined.

"I heal you." He said, locking his gaze with the girl that was staring at him in wonder. He redrew his magic for a moment.

"I need bed." He stated, pointing at Ume and motioned that she needed to lie down on her tummy. "Leg relax." Her leg needed to be as relaxed as possible during the session. It would save him a lot of magic and time if he didn't need to fight against the extra strain on the leg.

For some reason, this time, the parents helped him move the girl without a single protest.

~ Five hours later ~

Harry stubbornly ignored the sweat that was dripping down his neck – and face and back and forehead.

'Only a little bit more.' He thought and continued to let the magic do its work.

He was long past the difficult part, but it now all depended on his endurance.

Maybe he _should_ have waited until he had rested fully.

The trickiest part of healing was to let his magic read into the 'past energy' – which he still stubbornly thought to be magic - that an object had. In the end, everything was built up from energy and nearly always there would be a trace of what the energy had been in the past. Once his magic was able to find that, he needed to urge it to return to the old state.

After which Harry had to keep his focus to circulate and feed magic to the leg for a long time.

The first time that he had seen Pomfrey heal someone, he never thought that it took so much effort. It didn't take him long to realize that the art of healing had always been severely underestimated in the Wizarding world. It was during his own practice that his respect for the old Healer had raised tremendously. There was a reason why McGonagall had called her one of the best.

Harry only wished he would be as good as her once.

Shaking him out of his wandering thoughts, he got back to the problem at hand. The black-haired teen was eventually so focused on the leg that he barely noticed the girl's mother sitting down next to him before she gently started wiping his forehead.

Luckily the woman had made sure not to startle him. He politely nodded his thanks to the mother. A couple of minutes later, he shyly smiled when he felt the edge of a cup touch his lips and he gratefully drunk from the water that was being offered to him. While he could have removed one hand from the knee, this was easier.

Merlin. He had really needed that.

'I wonder how much time has passed.' Harry thought. 'Concentrating for so long makes it seem as if only moments passed.' He gave the woman next to him a thankful glance and then focused on his task once again.

Ume's mother didn't seem offended that she was being plainly ignored but settled next to her daughter and started stroking her hair. The girl mumbled something very drowsily, sounding as if she could fall asleep at any moment. She most likely could. Harry vaguely remembered that Hermione had told him before that healing magic often had a drowsy effect on muggles, so he wasn't worried by this side-effect.

About ten minutes later, something in the flow of his magic changed. Harry blinked as he suddenly realized that he was receiving all the magic back that he was sending out.

The healing had been completed for now. He would have to check-up on the girl later on to find out if the process was permanent or that it would need a second session.

So with a cough, he withdrew his hands and smiled at the mother.

"Finish." He said, his voice slightly hoarse.

The beaming smiles that he received and the pure happiness that radiated from them, made the wizard feel like all the effort had been worth it.

The girl was about to stand up, before Harry hurriedly stopped her.

"No!" He exclaimed, unsure how loud he had been when he saw everyone winch.

"Gomen. You relax time!" He stated seriously and showed his first serious glare that he had given while being in their company. Channeling his inner-Pomfrey seemed to work, because the girl reluctantly lied back down again.

"When?" She questioned impatiently and Harry could practically hear her hoping that it was tomorrow.

'Well that will be fine.' He puzzled as he tried to pronounce the word.

"Tom-morow." He agreed.

Noburu gestured with his head that they had to go and Harry tiredly stumbled up, everything around him seemed to be swaying all of sudden.

'That can't be good.'

He politely dodged the hug and happy gestures from the parents. He wasn't ready for that kind of contact right now. The image of the Weasleys greeting him sprung up in his mind.

All he wanted to do was to get to his bed and sleep. So he sloppily copied the bow that was directed at him and followed Noburu, who had eventually pulled the teen's arm around his neck to give him some support as they walked back to the man's house.

Harry barely noticed that some food was practically shoved into his mouth, a glass of water right after before he was dragged to the bed. Not bothering to change clothes, Harry flopped down on the bed and was asleep before he even hit the pillow.

Noburu stood in the doorway as he watched the wizard with an odd expression on his face for a while. After a couple of minutes he shook his head, quietly closed the door and got back to work.

Harry slept soundlessly for the rest of the afternoon and the night.

~ The next morning~

Harry startled awake when he heard something being torn apart in his room. His heart was beating furiously in his chest as his eyes darted across the room to find out where the danger was. He slipped out of the bed and reached for his wan-

'Don't have a wand.' He reminded himself.

His eyebrows furrowed and he nearly jumped as he heard the sound once more. The third time that he heard the sound, he had found the source.

He paused in surprise and disbelief, staring at the objects on the ground.

'No way.' He thought, his heart warming up in delight as he realized what they were.

Never – ever – did he think he would be so incredibly happy with the sight of a couple of books, especially when one of them resembled a very boring tome.

The sound had come from his jacket being torn apart as a couple of shrunken books resumed their original size. He had totally forgotten about them! He hadn't even realized that they had been there at all. Only now, he remembered that it had been that particular jacket that Hermione used to hide those books in with the use of one hand-made hidden pocket.

'Seems like the magic has run out without any magic available in this world.'

A thought occurred to him. 'Would my absence from the books surroundings have something to do with it? They could have taken a little bit of my magic to remain shrunken.'

Not that these kinds of thoughts were important now.

Harry carefully crouched down next to the books and gently ran his fingers over the cover. 'I recognize them now.'

It had taken Harry a few moments to realize that this was same jacket from the time that they had searched for the Horcruxes. Harry vaguely remembered that Hermione had put a couple of books in their jackets in their rush to get way, so that he and Ron could read the books whenever they had time on their journey.

He wasn't really sure whether she had actually thought that they would.

'_Knowledge can change and safe your life._' She had once said to him.

He still remembered his answer clearly. He had looked at her blankly and replied, thinking of his archenemy. '… _and it can change you for the worse as well._'

She had stared at him silently after that, but had still shoved the books in his hands anyway and muttered that she would make sure to hide them in his jacket later on.

Even though he had not been very enthusiastic at the time, right at this moment, Harry couldn't help but be incredibly grateful to her.

He let out a happy chuckle as he happily opened the tome – a potion book of all things. He smothered his first reaction of annoyance. This would provide him with the perfect opportunity to help the people here! There was no Snape around to distract him and he had gotten better at potions in the last year of Hogwarts.

'Noburu has given me a home but I will make sure that I will earn my place here.' He thought, determined.

His eyes glanced over the words in a rather hungry manner. He hadn't realized how much he had missed his language, even though it had only been a couple of weeks. He picked the smallest book up and clutched it to his chest.

These were one of the last reminders he had from his own world. He glanced at the other books and spotted a medical first-aid kit attached to one. He would have to keep that apart for future use. The book attached to was about emergency healing and the healing in general. It was the far more advanced version of a book that Madame Pomfrey had made him read once when he had been incredibly bored in the Hospital Wing.

A drop of water hit the ground and he touched his cheek and held it up in front of his face.

'I'm crying.' The wizard thought in surprise, taken off guard.

'I finally found a new place to stay and I'm crying of all things.' He chided himself, but he couldn't stop the tears from escaping his eyes.

He slowly made sure to wrap up the books into his jacket and put them away. He would have to find a nice hiding spot for them later.

Then ever so slowly he took the book of magical healing, clutched it to his chest once again and returned to his small bed. He crawled under the warm covers and curled himself around the book, determined to start reading immediately.

Well, as soon as he had stopped crying that is.

~ Later that evening ~

"Mom! Look at me! I'm running!" Ume practically shouted to everyone at the street as she managed to slowly jog – 'run'- towards her mother.

The only sign that she had had a limp was the wobbliness of her steps, which most likely came from the lack of strength in a few muscles near the knee. Harry kept a careful eye on her, wondering if this was how Madame Pomfrey had always felt.

'I feel like she could collapse any moment. There is no way that she is completely healed and yet she is practically running laps!' He complained, but kept his mouth shut for now. He could imagine how ecstatic she was feeling and he was not going to spoil that for her.

He would just have to check up on her in a couple of days.

The wizard watched a couple of the villagers approach her gleefully with surprise in their eyes. There was a short conversation before Ume turned and started looking around, obviously looking for a certain someone.

Harry suddenly felt the need to hide.

Unfortunately he never got the chance as she spotted him and started running towards him as fast as she could. Harry's eyes widened when Ume didn't slow down and spread her arms instead. She tackled him with a fierce hug. Not wanting to hurt her by using his newfound strength, Harry allowed them to topple over and land on the ground.

Harry lost his ability to breath for a moment before he was aware of the shaking frame of the girl above him.

"Arigato. Arigato." She kept mumbling and cried on his shoulder.

It wasn't difficult for Harry at all to sit back up, even as she weighted him down. He tried to make it look like it took him some effort though. They shifted their positions ever so slightly, which at least felt less embarrassing for the male teenager.

Harry was well aware of all the stares that were directed at his person though.

As uncomfortable as he felt, Harry didn't stop himself from hugging her back ever so slightly. Patting her back, he ignored the tears that were streaming down her cheeks and into his neck.

"Happy?" He questioned her, though he already knew the answer.

"Yes!" She cried out with a sob. Harry forced himself to keep his happy smile back and instead made sure that he looked at her worriedly. Her eyes widened and she started to furiously nod her head. "Yes!" She said, laughing this time. "I'm very happy."

Harry let the smile slip on his face and nodded.

"Good."

**~ End Chapter ~**

Harry has found his new goal in life. I can imagine that being in a completely different world makes having a certain job or aim is very important for someone to find a reason to be there. At least that is my look on it.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If there are any holes, mistakes or questions, please don't hesistate and ask or comment! After all, I love to hear from you guys.

Till next update! (I wonder how fast that one will be)

~Dreamyin


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new identity for himself.

**Beta: Beloved Daughter **was so kind to beta this for me. Thank you!

Hello my faithful readers! Thank you so much for all the reviews guys! 100 already? Wow. Still, I care more about the fact that you guys like it so much. It is also great to get some feedback about the story (so that I can fix things and adjust the story to make it flow better). Here is another (longer!) chapter specially for you all!

From the reviews: I got some information about conflicts with the gravity theory... that a lighter gravity affects your body (it decreases the mass of your muscles) etc, but since I'm - nor Harry - is physics expert, we will stick to the theory that Harry thought up. If necessary, I will make my idea more clear later on when the topic comes up again. Still thank you very much for bringing it up! Also, for those that shared their worry (thanks for the advice!) about how Harry suddenly became so good at healing 'all of sudden', the background of his skills will be in this chapter.

Hope you enjoy! So read and review!

**Chapter 5: Making Friends**

~Memory Lane~

_Green eyes stared longingly at the large door on the other side of the huge room. The young wizard had been in the Hospital Wing for three days now and he was already sick of it._

'_After this check-up she will probably be gone for a while, I could always try to sneak out for a little bit. Just to se…'_

"_Don't even try to get out of bed when I'm gone, Mr. Potter. I will notice immediately, I can assure you that." The stern voice of Madame Pomfrey warned the young wizard, who nearly pouted in disappointment._

"_But it is so boring here." He muttered under his breath, but the observant Healer caught it anyway. "You have work that you can do here, Harry." She told the boy._

"_No there isn't." He rebutted with a sigh. "I finished all my homework already."_

"_Well even though the holidays are coming up, you could as well try to get ahead on some theory."_

"_I'm not interested in reading any potion books just for fun." The boy answered, his face scrunching up at the thought. "…and I already finished with Defense against the Dark Arts." He admitted._

_"Why not study for potions." _

_Harry's face scrunched up at the thought. "No thanks." _

"_You could always try to read a normal fiction book."_

"_I don't feel like it." The teenager said stubbornly, sighing again._

_The old medic hummed for a moment, sounding thoughtful. She was well aware how quickly patients, especially teenagers and children, got bored when they had to stay in the hospital wing. Still, she couldn't let the child run off in the condition he was in. She refused to let any patients go without being absolutely sure that they were fully healed, which Harry wasn't._

"_What do you want to do when you finish school Harry?" The nurse asked after a while._

_Harry answered almost automatically. "I want to become an Auror of course."_

"_What if you can't?" She asked, frowning ever so slightly at the speed in which Harry had answered. _

_The answer had been given far too quickly for her liking. After all, she was well aware that Harry had been easily influenced by those that he cared for and it was not difficult to see that everyone expected this dream from him._

_The young wizard, surprised by her comment, looked over his shoulder to try to see her expression. The woman was still running a couple of diagnostic spells and ignored his questioning look. Turning back around, Harry was about to say that he didn't want to be anything else, but she spoke up again before he could._

"_I know that everyone expects you to become an Auror and I can understand why a quite reckless boy, like you" – Harry tried to protest but she plainly ignored him "would find the action appealing, but there are still so many other options out there." She offered._

"_You still have enough time to see if you are interested in other things. Maybe even those that involve skills that aren't immediately taught at school." She continued, not having to mention to the boy that she didn't mean the Dark Arts._

"_What do you mean, stuff like healing?" Harry inquired, a thoughtful frown on his face._

"_If that interests you." She said with a knowing smile. "Even though it is difficult and tiring, it is a very satisfying job."_

_Harry hummed thoughtfully. Before he had known about magic, Harry had been interested in becoming a doctor, or either a police officer. However, these future dreams had quickly dissolved the moment that he had set foot in the Wizard world and heard all the stories about his father and Sirius. _

"_Does that look on your face mean that you are interested?" Pomfrey inquired as she walked to the other side of the bed. "You can lie back down again if you want to."_

_Harry's face scrunched up as he pictured himself as a healer. _

_ "Healing isn't a girly profession Mr. Potter." The healer explained sternly, before she walked away to get the potions._

"_I wasn't thinking about that…" Harry protested, though he did kind of flinch guiltily at the comment. "It is just that…" He trailed off and remained silent. She decided to give him a moment to get his thoughts in order._

_A few minutes later, after he had taken his potions, she retrieved a book about healing for beginners. "Here, to pass time." She only said, handing it over, before walking away._

_With an annoyed huff, Harry stared at the book. He didn't feel like reading at all._

_However, there was only so much boredom that he could take. So, about thirty minutes later, Harry eventually opened the book and started to read. His bored expression slowly but surely became more interested as his eyes glided over the words. He didn't notice how much time passed until the healer pointed out that he should sleep. Harry was surprised with how reluctant he felt to put the book away. For some reason the information was quite fascinating._

"_You are just like your mother." The healer had muttered softly in amusement as she walked away, leaving a wide-eyed boy behind to rest. The young boy fell asleep with a smile on his face._

_At that time, the young wizard had no idea that this would be the start of a routine for every time that he would end up in the Hospital Wing – which was unsurprisingly more often than other students. Whenever he didn't have any more schoolwork to do, was bored, or was simply interested in learning more, he would read about the arts of healing. _

_"It doesn't hurt for an Auror to know some emergency healing." He had stated somewhat defensively the first couple of times that the healer had caught him. Madame Pomfrey had only rolled her eyes, shaken her head and walked away while muttering about the "arts of healing being underestimated"._

After a few years it was going so well that Pomfrey starting teaching him a spell or two every time.

Never had Harry thought that he would actually use it as extensively as he was now doing.

However he couldn't be happier. After all, Madame Pomfrey was totally right, healing _was_ a very satisfying job.

~ About two weeks later ~

"Mine?" Harry questioned not quite believing what the man next to him was trying to tell him.

Noburu nodded at him, his faces slightly grumpy and his arms crossed. All in all, the man was looking very reluctant to be here. Harry knew better though, the man was pretty happy that the small shed in front of him was going to be used.

More importantly, the man was more than happy to let Harry have his own place. The man did not necessary dislike the fact that Harry slept in his very small guest-room, but Noburu liked having his own private place. Just like he understood that the teenager needed his own. After all, it didn't take the elder man long to figure out that besides a little odd and exotic looking, Harry was very – very – independent.

Harry's company would be welcome at nearly any time, but Noburu did not want to share his personal space with the boy if it was not necessary. Besides, he didn't think that the tiny guest room was enough for a boy as ambitious as Harry, especially with the skills that the wizard had been showing. Word about his skills would surely start to spread and Noburu did not want his house to become some kind of clinic.

Nope. He did not like the idea of people constantly bothering him to get to Harry.

Which was one of the main reasons that they were standing in front of a decent-sized shed.

"This mine?" Harry repeated once again, his eyes wide in hope and disbelief.

It was perfect.

Of course, it was very old and it needed a lot of work, but it was big enough for Harry to live in by himself. Besides, if it wasn't, Harry should be able to enlarge it. That, and Harry could give it a tiny second floor by placing a wooden floor in between the pointed roof. That is, if that was possible.

The wizard never really thought that he would ever live in something like this, but for some reason he already loved it.

'I can expand it. Add a second room for any patient that would need more supervision once I become good enough. I could try and figure out how to make potions here too.' The wizard's mind started racing.

His green eyes glanced at the ground surrounding it. 'Maybe I can even start to grow my own ingredients in a garden. It can't be more difficult than what I had to do in my world.' He mused.

More important than the space itself though was that fact that Harry got back his _privacy_.

No need to hide his books anymore. No secretly practicing some basic wandless magic. There were so many options opening up. So many things that he could work on without constantly avoiding suspicion and questions.

The wizard turned to the man and smiled brightly at him, bowing as deep as he possibly could. "Arigato Newboro-san." He stated sincerely.

Noburu pulled him back to full height again and smiled kindly at him.

"Noburu is fine." He told him with a nod.

Harry smiled at him, having learned that giving permission to remove the 'san' of one's name was somewhat like accepting someone as a friend.

"Arigato Newboro."

"You're welcome, Hari-kun. Make sure that you use it well."

"Hai!"

Feeling like a child that got to see his first bedroom, the teenager slowly opened the door. He took in the thick dust and the funny smell, but he quickly pushed that thought away. He would fix that later.

Instead the wizard started walking around, studying the room that he would get to use and love. Much to Harry's happiness, there was still some furniture left behind, like the large wooden desk, a pair of chairs, a couple of worn-out bookshelves and a sleeping mat– though it looked like it had seen better days. Maybe he could repair it later on.

'Make it softer too.' He thought, wincing as he couldn't help but compare it to his bed in Hogwarts.

He glanced around and spotted a closet and two doors. He pointed at it and Noburu made some gestures that made Harry belief that there was a bathroom in there. Then he pointed to the other door and made the gesture 'little'

"Sleep." He then stated and Harry nodded in understanding.

'Thank Merlin.' Harry thought. He had a bathroom and a tiny extra bedroom then.

So it was not _really_ a shed after all. It was more like a mini-house, which was more than enough for Harry.

"My son made it and lived here for a while." The old man tried to explain to him as he watched the teenager opening the doors and curiously studying everything.

Having turned to the man, Harry nodded in understanding to the explanation. He hadn't met or heard anything about the man's son yet. He had no clue why the man would have moved away from his father, but he didn't push the subject.

Privacy was valued by both of them.

'The boy must have been quite good with his hands if he was able to make this.' Harry thought, looking at the crack and the places that would need some repair.

All in all, the house wasn't big, but it was enough for Harry. He looked up as he finally noticed that there was a wooden ladder at the right side of the room, leading to - Harry smiled happily as he spotted the second floor that had been placed between the pointed roof. It only took up two-thirds of the ceiling, leaving the rest out in open, creating a sense of having much more space.

Noburu's son must have had the same idea as Harry.

Great, that meant even less work for him.

'I could sleep up there.' Harry decided and started to divide and assign different functions to the room. 'The other bedroom could be the medical room. If a bed fits in there, I can help patients in my own home if I have to. If I put my potion stuff in this room, right there on the desk near the windows….and then the food and the like ther…'

A tap on his shoulder made him turn to face the man. The man pointed at himself then at Harry and faked that he was writing on his hand. Then he pointed his finger to his head – 'know?' Harry wondered - and then pointed to Harry. Harry's eyes widened, before his cheeks flushed brightly.

Was he saying that he was going to teach him how to write of all things?

'No way! I'm an absolute failure with those strange signs!' He thought as he waved his hand in front of him to show that he _really_ didn't need to.

The man repeated the gesture. 'He is going to be stubborn.' Harry realized and he waved his hand a little faster.

Noburu shot him a stern look though, causing Harry's shoulders to slump and the young man sigh in defeat.

Old people and the looks they could shoot you…

He managed to turn the slumping in a slight bow and straightened himself again, not wanting to show the man any disrespect. After all, he had done a lot for him so far.

The man smirked ever so slightly as he left the shed with a wave as a goodbye.

'Well what doesn't kill me can only make me stronger, or at least more knowledgeable in this case.' Harry tried to cheer himself up and waved his goodbye to the man.

Harry stood there for a moment, his jacket and books clutched to his chest before he put them down slowly and carefully on the wooden desk.

This was _his_. It was such an incredible unrealistic feeling.

He pulled up the sleeves of the clothes that Noburu had given him. The man's son had been bigger than him – but the bagginess of the clothes was somehow comfortable at the same time as it reminded him slightly of robes that he had gotten used to wear. On the other hand, he knew the clothes wouldn't be practical for his work. He would have to figure out something later on.

Walking to the middle of the room, he circled around once more to take in everything once again. He took a deep breath and then breathed out ever so slowly.

The wizard now had a place to call his own.

Harry grinned as he rolled up his sleeves.

'It's time to clean this place up. Who knows, I might love doing it this time. '

He certainly did.

~ About five weeks later~

With the situation Harry was in, his magical accident with the 'Surdo' seemed to be one of the best things that could have happened to Harry. If only he were able to turn it off, it would have been perfect.

All in all, acting like he was deaf had provided Harry with the perfect opportunity to get some more information about this world and on how to fit in. Plus the amount of words that he was able to read from people and learn in a day was especially rewarding.

As expected, some of the villagers had at first been skeptical about him, like they were about all things that concerned strangers. This ninja world seemingly taught people to be far more suspicious than his own world. Luckily for Harry, Noburu seemed to have a very good reputation, so his presence was accepted fairly quickly after the man had explained what happened. Though having Ume and her parents to back him up might have had something to do with that as well.

A healer like him seemed to be valued enormously among the villagers. That was a big plus.

The wizard was currently on his way to a couple of shops that were situated in the middle of the small village in order to get some more food. He glanced briefly at two boys that were leaning against one of the houses. They met his gaze for a moment and he nodded at them. They smiled politely back, though one looked less sincere than the other.

As soon as he had passed them, they started talking to each other.

"That's the new 'deaf' healer right? What is his name again?"

"Hari."

"His name is Needle? Seriously?

"That's what I heard."

The other one hummed in thought.

"Is he really deaf?"

"They say so."

"I don't believe it one bit."

"Should we test it?"

Harry's eyes twitched in annoyance as he heard the two children whisper to each other. The streets were quiet, so without any other sounds to mix with the whispers, Harry could hear the words easily enough.

He wasn't completely proficient with the language yet, but the wizard couldn't understand this conversation just fine. While speaking was still difficult, his ability to understand what was being said had increased tremendously.

He might not like the idea of invading their privacy – especially mentally – but it was a matter of survival for now. He tried to stay away from real private matters though, ever after that one time that he went into the mind of a man down the street and… He fought a blush from creeping on his face. At least Harry had acquired more words to add to his vocabulary, even though they had to do with the 'bees and the birds'.

He was not going to look that man in the eye again for a while unless it was completely necessary.

However, except for this little… incident, Harry was comfortable enough with the language to cut down on his Legilimency.

His thoughts turned back to the whispering boys, the sounds of the other villagers to loud to pick up their hushed conversation any longer.

So the boys doubted that he was deaf huh? Harry sighed tiredly. This was the third time that this was happening, which was why the wizard wasn't surprised when the boys sneaked up to him and -

"HAAAAAAARRRRIIII!" Harry forced himself to keep his face passive and keep walking.

"HEEEEEEEEY! HEAAAAAAAALLLLLEEEER-SAAAAAAN!"

Unknown to them, the very loud yelling was nothing more than a whisper to Harry's ears.

'Thank Merlin that the Surdo makes everything sound so soft.' Harry thought. 'I might have actually become deaf otherwise.'

'Hopefully they will leave me alone now…' Harry thought pleadingly, as he continued on his way.

"Huh?" He heard one of the boys exclaim.

"He didn't react at all!"

"But we screamed freaking loud! He must be deaf."

"I don't know. Maybe we should try it even louder next time. I could ask Ken to help!"

"Yeah!"

Harry tried not to sag forward in disappointment. He had just become the target of the children's boredom it seemed.

Bugger.

'Still, they should get bored of it eventually right?' The wizard tried to cheer himself up as he arrived at the shop.

"Konichiwa." He greeted the owner with a smile, which was returned whole-heartedly.

"Hari-san!" The thin and tired-looking man greeted him and gave him a small bow. "Thank you once more for helping my wife last week!"

"You are welcome." Harry stated. These people kept on thanking him, but he knew better than to wave away their thanks.

"How she?" He informed, easily shifting to a more professional attitude as he momentarily picked up a pack of rice.

The man's eyes brightened considerably. "Much better! The twins are keeping us up all…Erm." The man frowned as he tried to explain it to him with the help of gestures and articulating the words so that he could hopefully read his lips. "All night, but they are both doing very fine as well."

Harry smiled as he was able to understand most of the talk without having to read the man's mind. 'Thank Merlin for Legilimens.'

Well, as long as it didn't involve the bees and the birds that is.

~ About fifteen months later ~

Harry whipped a few drops of sweat from his face as the warm sun shone down on him.

He had been walking for hours, but it was worth it. The wizard didn't need to hurry, since the villagers had gotten used to his long hiking trips. He loved the piece that it provided – and the training that he could do – while scouting for new plants to use.

'It had nearly been a year and a half already. It is odd how fast time has passed.' The wizard pondered, as he reached out to wipe off the sweat on his hands and face with a rag that hung on the waist of his trousers.

Though he might be accepted as a healer, it had taken some extensive testing by bored children – trying to make him react with loud noises, screaming, sneaking up to him unnoticed to see if he really didn't hear them and gossiping close to him in order to find for any signs that he was indeed listening - before they had finally accepted his 'handicap'.

A Shinobi world sure made people paranoid.

The acceptance didn't stop the villagers from asking why he couldn't heal himself though.

To which Harry would simply his head and said. "I can't. Need time."

Which often led the villagers to come to their own conclusions. He let them. Harry wasn't actually lying though, since he was still unable to cancel the Surdo for some reason. However until he would finally be able to take care of it, Harry was very glad that he had managed to adjust the amount of sound that was being repressed by his hearing. Now he could hear just slightly better when he really needed to and nearly completely block out the sounds if they were once again testing him. It made his reactions at least a lot more believable.

Luckily for Harry, he had gotten used to being under the influence of the spell so it didn't hinder him as much anymore.

After about two months of having lived in the village, he had been unofficially proclaimed to be 'the introverted kind-hearted deaf healer' and the people had pretty much let their guard down around him. Being around people, who looked him in the eye quite often, made it easier for Harry to obtain a little bit of basic knowledge every day. After being able to understand most of the spoken language, Harry tried to focus on other things, which included information that had to do with reading kanji. This helped to speed up the lesson that he had with Noburu. After all, showing some basic knowledge didn't seem to hurt.

Noburu had been determined to teach him every day until he was proficient and much to Harry's disbelief he had actually learned most of the language quite quickly. Still, the urgency that Harry had felt made him a perfectly motivated pupil. Noburu had been surprised by how quickly Harry had been able to take up the information. Unknown to him, besides the motivation, the use of_ Legilimens_ had helped a lot as well.

The older man had just assumed that he hadn't been deaf his whole life instead. Maybe he had been able to hear as a child and therefore had already had some basic knowledge about writing that allowed him to pick it up easier. Harry just shrugged as the topic of his past came up.

Even though Harry wasn't entirely certain whether the man was suspicious of him or not, the man wasn't complaining.

So his writing and reading skills grew every day, much to everyone's relief. After all, reading and writing was, besides body language, one of the main ways to communicate for a deaf person.

Noburu and Harry had also worked on the wizard's pronunciation, in which Harry loved to tease Noburu once in a while. A smirk slipped on his face as he thought back to one of his favorite sessions.

~Memory~

"_Newboroo." Harry mimicked._

"_Noburu." The old man corrected._

_Harry frowned._

"_Newburo."_

"_Noburu." The man tried to exaggerate the movements of his lips even more._

"_Nowboro."_

_Harry could practically see the vein on the man's forehead getting more pronounced as he tried to keep his cool. "No-bu-ru."_

"_Now-bu-row" Harry 'tried' again._

_Noburu let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his short fuzzy hair. "You know what… let's focus on reading for now."_

~Back to reality~

Harry still made sure to 'slip up' on pronouncing the man's name right every now and then ever since.

He chuckled at the memory as he saw the village appear in the distance.

After a couple of months, Harry had finally become quite fluent in the written language and he was able to communicate with the people around him. Hence the reason why he was now wearing string around his neck with a small slate attached to it and a few pieces of white chalk in the pouch that he had gotten used to wearing. He was able to talk just fine, but it would be easy for others to use.

He had also been careful to remain as vague and silent as possible about his heritage and his past. He would just shake his head and 'blank out' if he was really pushed.

Even though it made the people wary, they came to like him eventually. The only reason why they wouldn't force him to answer was because he was a very valuable healer, which they really didn't want to chase away. Not that they wouldn't try to come up with stories about his 'supposed' past though.

Still, as long as they didn't confront him, Harry was fine with this stalemate. In the meantime, he simply ignored the theories that the villagers came up with.

Even if some of them were extremely ridiculous.

A movement in the corner of Harry's eyes caught his attention and he waved politely back to the man that was greeting him from the field of vegetables that he was collecting.

'Yep, they have accepted me just fine.' Harry thought contently, which was good, as he really didn't have any bad intentions.

He readjusted the bag that he was carrying on his back. They were filled with different plants and ingredients, as he tried to find out whether several plants would work in potions.

At least he had found a couple of the plants that acted more or less the same in this world as they would in his. Though it was a pain to find out which ones, because testing them and finding the similarities, dangers and the like was a very time-consuming process. He wouldn't have been able to figure it out without the Potion Tome though.

'Thank Merlin that I at least have a couple of spells for that now.' Harry thought. It had taken few months for him to master them, but it helped to speed up the process tremendously.

It now only took him one to three days to study a plant.

All thanks to Hermione.

He remembered how happy he had been the first time that he had finished his first Pain-Relief Potion.

'I never thought I would actually start to like brewing potions. Then again, without Snape nearby to point out every little mistake, it suddenly seems a little easier.'

Indeed, Harry never thought he would ever make Potions on his own accord. To be fair, he had never expected to seriously become a healer either, but he found the job very rewarding – just like Madame Pomfrey had said it was. Each of his patients that he managed to help made his heart feel a little lighter. The smile that he would get as a reward soothed the remaining pain of home-sickness for a while too.

The villagers regarded Harry pretty much as a good guy after he had healed a couple of villagers. So, as long as he made sure to stick to the easier and less noticeable potions, he would be safe.

For now, it was this book that allowed Harry to improve his image as a 'gifted' healer. He was nowhere near the level of healing a dying person. At least, he didn't think so.

There had been one other book that had been put in his pocket as well, but for some reason he couldn't get it to open. It was a small brown booklet that had no title at all and looked quite old. Harry had a suspicion what it was though, judging by the image what he recognized to be the 'inner eye'. He was certainly going to use that one – if he could finally get it to open for him at least. He had practically tried nearly everything but nothing had worked.

Ah well, at least he had the other books.

'Thanks Hermione.'

His eyes turned sad as he thought back to his homeland and friends.

'I miss you guys so much. I hope you and Ron will get married soon.' He mused, a sad smile gracing his lips.

If only he had been able to be there as well.

Shaking himself out of thought he continued his way to his very small workshop. It had taken a while for him to patch the place up, but once it was done, he couldn't be happier. He had decided to stick to the dark wood and red interior as it gave the small house a warm a cozy atmosphere.

Yes, red and gold would always have a place in his heart.

Unlocking the door of his tiny home – he didn't want any villagers to become too curious - he emptied his bag. Walking over to the desk, he pulled away the cloth that covered his books. There had been a couple of close calls in which people nearly saw the strange language and he wanted to keep that secret to himself as long as possible. Though in a small town like that, someone eventually would find out anyway.

He searched for the pages of the Potion book that discussed all the ingredients. Hopefully he would be able to use some of these plants for his new fever-reducing potion. Many of the villagers were getting ill lately.

How easily Pompey would have taken care of it…

He sighed. He really should stop comparing things with his past.

Shoving away the memories of his old home, he focused on the new ones. The villagers had been very nice to him. He liked to help out when they needed him and the town refused to let him refuse the money they paid him– they had a special tax system for it that Harry didn't really understand, but which meant that all the people would pay for the ill people and that he could earn money by healing them.

Not that he had spent much of it. He had no clue on what to buy. After having bought a couple of flasks and the like, there was not much that he needed as nearly all his ingredients came directly from the nature itself. He had no complains to use the money to buy those that he couldn't find though.

What was left, he kept on saving.

'Maybe I can get Noburu a gift eventually.' He would have to think of something.

Harry put his attention back on his little project that he had been working on for quite some time. Glancing at the color, he smiled and started to add and mix the final ingredients. He made sure to follow all the instruction to the letter and kept an eye out for any changes.

Luckily, the ingredients were acting like they should.

He let out a sigh of relief as everything went well. The potion changed color once more and the dark brown color that appeared was still all according to plan.

'Now I only need to stir it for a while'. Harry thought, his eyes once again moving over the instructions, even though he probably knew by heart after having it read so many times. 'For a half an hour…' He thought, with a sigh, but started anyway.

Time went faster than he had expected and eventually he put the whole potion in the flask, smiling happily all the while.

He had _finally_ done it. It had taken six months and nearly all of his free time, but he had done it.

"Finally." He whispered to himself. He let out a shuddering breath, but refused to let the emotions overwhelm him.

He might not be able do all of his magic anymore, but at least he would be able to fulfill one of his dreams gotten to develop during his years in Hogwarts. Smiling, he closed the Potion tome.

Whatever would happen, Harry was going to make this dream happen. No matter what.

**~End Chapter~**

Hope you guys enjoyed! Also don't worry, more action next chapter! Please share your thoughts and review! You know you can do it!

~Dreamyin


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new identity for himself.

**Beta: **Beloved Daughter

Hello again dear faithful readers of mine! Have I mentioned before how much I appreciate you all taking the time to review so much? I'm totally blown away, but I can't help but absolutely love it. This story is actually passing my other story 'New Idenity in the Past' with concerning the poll and the amount of alerts (though not yet the favs and reviews). I'm so happy that you all like it so far.

From the small 'please update asap' to the whole rants (which I love even more) to the tips on how to improve and inspiration to be shared. That said, I got a tip on how to improve my introduction of Taiki, so I have **rewritten** the last part of chapter 5. So don't be surprised. I also want to thank Dannichigo for helping me out with some names and since I'm on a roll, I also want to thank my beta dear Beloved Daughter for correcting everything so quickly.

Anyway, enough rambling on my part! Time to get Harry in trou- I mean, time for the story to move on.

Please enjoy and don't forget to share your thoughts.

**Chapter 6: Breaking Luck**

Waiting for the potion to cool down, Harry continued to stare at it and allowed his thought to wander again.

Helping out a few people proved to be very rewarding. Not only because he helped people, but also because the villagers often helped him out in return. Like sharing a bit of their dinner, or asking if he could use something from another village they were going to visit. Certainly after his death experience, wealth suddenly seemed so less important. Harry also liked to think that he also had made a few friends, even though he had become known as bit of a silent and withdrawn boy in the village.

All in all, he liked the mentality of the village. They supported each other, respected each other and knew each other.

Noburu was a very pleasant man to talk with; at least once he warmed up to you. The elderly man had been quite reserved for a while, even though he had been insistent on letting Harry wear his son's clothing. However, one day he had smiled at Harry and asked him to play a game of Shogi with him. Harry never figured out what had changed the man's attitude towards him so abruptly, but had accepted the offer without fuss.

Just like chess, Harry wasn't very good at it, but he appreciated the man's attention and effort to teach him on how to improve. The man had become slightly more enthusiastic about teaching him the tactics behind the game once their language lessons finished.

All in all, even though Noburu might not always show it, the man seemed to enjoy his company. Besides Noburu, there were a few other people his age who had tried to approach him. One of them was Ume. She was the one that had been limping for a few years. Needless to say, she was very grateful to him and brought him some food every now and then or dragged him along to eat along with her parents.

At last, there was-

"Hari!" Came a very happy exclamation as the door of his shed was thrown wide open.

A couple of light furniture shook from the force that the visitor had put into it the simple action. It made Harry nearly think that his visitor did it on purpose, thinking that he was deaf and all.

Caught off guard, the wizard barely managed to contain his wince and turned his head towards the door in surprise. His suspicion was confirmed when he saw his frequent visitor stand in the doorway. The wizard blinked up at the boy, not even bothering to tell him not to rush in like that.

Time had proved it to be a hopeless case.

It seemed as if Harry's acknowledgement of his presence had been an invitation, seeing as said teenager practically jogged into the small room the moment that he had been spotted. Panicking slightly, Harry instinctively reached out to pick up the vulnerable potion that resided on his table. He was _not_ going to let this precious potion get damaged.

"Taiki." Harry greeted back, though much calmer than the energetic brown haired teenager that just barged in.

"Hari!" The brown-haired figure greeted once more, as was their usual ritual. A pair of cheerful grey eyes twinkled merrily as Harry met his gaze.

'Oh, oh. _Again_?' Harry thought, having secretly hoped that he would enter normally just one time.

Even though the wizard had expected it, Harry's eyes still widened as the teen lunged at him. His instincts were telling him to defend himself, but Harry knew better than to resist the process. Instead, Harry automatically held the recently-finished potion as far away from the teen as he possible could.

Not a moment later his head was pulled into the boy's side and an arm slung around his neck. The boy's knuckles – which were covered by dark green fingerless gloves- brushed over his head playfully as Taiki gave him a noogie. It was moments like this that made Harry glad that Taiki was taller than him. While it was annoying at times, it saved his neck from aching the whole time.

After all, this happened quite often since Taiki did it nearly every time he ran into Harry.

Which was about nearly every day.

"Taiki." Harry protested blandly, trying to get the boy to stop. His hair was enough of a disaster as it was. It certainly didn't need any encouragement to become even more unmanageable.

'Though maybe that is exactly why he is doing it.' Harry concluded, his eye twitching.

If it were not for the fact that Taiki had been one of the other teenagers beside Ume that approached him and befriended him, he would have kicked him out of his shed already.

"You will never guess what happened yesterday!" Taiki practically gushed as he finally stopped the noogie and started writing down on a random piece of paper without even asking Harry if he could.

Tugging on the arm, Harry rolled his eyes when the teenager didn't let go of his firm hold on him. With a sigh, Harry grasped the back of the teenager's white-shirt and started tugging, hoping that the collar would irritate his neck. It wasn't very effective though, as Taiki stubbornly ignored that as well, only laughing at his attempt. Eyes narrowing, Harry tried to reach for the teenager's light brown hair, but he couldn't reach it.

'Damn, if only he had long hair.' As it was, Taiki's messy hair only reached just below his ears.

For a moment he managed to grasp the teenager's dark green headband – much like a ninja's but without the plate – but it slipped out of his fingers.

Taiki playfully tightened his hold on Harry to let him know that he was fully aware of his attempts. For a second Harry debated licking the teenager's bare arm, but that didn't seem appealing at all.

The boy had probably been training, so who knew how many germs he would swallow.

Grumbling under his breath, the healer decided that he had no choice but to wait patiently for Taiki to finish.

'At least he is a fast writer.' Harry thought with an impatient sigh.

Harry could still clearly remember the first time that he had been 'attacked' like that.

At the time, Harry had been completely caught off guard. "Bloody he-!" he had grounded out when he had been – out of nowhere –suddenly grabbed from behind. While twisting his body for a nasty form of self-defense, Harry's brain had picked up the first signal that another small flask – a pain-reliever he had been working on - was going to slip out of his fingers. Unfortunately, he had been too late to act, and a second later the flask shattered in many pieces.

It had been this little distraction that had saved the other teenager from getting his arm broken.

It had been a disaster, seeing as a strong-smelling potion had ended up spilled on the ground. Not to mention that Harry had barely been able to keep himself from attacking the well-meaning boy. Though he had managed to play of his sudden self-defense as a fluke, the smell of the potion hadn't been pleasant and had stayed in the small shed for three days.

Unsurprisingly, Harry had not been amused and Taiki had learned that the usually reserved boy could actually glare quite nastily.

Taiki had smiled sheepishly at him before shrugged his shoulders rather helplessly, offhandedly offering to let Harry sleep at his place. "Uhm…My mother wouldn't refuse you?" He had said, wincing slightly at the look that he had been rewarded with.

In the end, Harry had dropped the glare with a sigh and had taken him up on the offer. There was no way that he was going to be able to sleep with the stench in the air.

Looking back on the incident, it hadn't been bad at all. It was during this time that Harry had gotten to know the young man a little better. If anything, Harry had quite enjoyed staying there, even though he had been confronted with a painful feeling of homesickness once in a while. This could be blamed on the fact that Taiki's mother reminded him of Molly a couple of times. And Taiki's mother was not the only one around who reminded Harry of the Weasleys. Taiki's character actually reminded Harry a little bit of the Weasley twins, though minus the pranking aspect.

Luckily, the wizard was now quite used to the boy's behavior and he managed to keep his current precious potion safe. He had been working on it for a long time. He had started it after having read a message from Hermione on a piece of paper that she had hid in the Potion book and there was no way that he was going to let Taiki ruin it. It had taken him _months_ to find the right ingredients that he had to use.

"Hmpph…Taiki!" He protested as Taiki still had his arm clamped around his neck to keep him in place. He scowled as he felt the top of his head burn ever so slightly as well. Taiki's enthusiasm made the noogie little more painful than normal.

The wizard wondered what had happened that made the normal happy teenager… well, even happier.

The energetic boy stated something else, but couldn't hear him as Harry had turned himself deaf without much thought. He might not be able to hear the boy anymore, but the wizard was very much aware of the vibrations in the boy's body that let him know that the boy was saying something.

It never amazed the wizard how more aware he was of things now that he had 'given up' his hearing.

"Taiki, let me go." He tried again in vain.

Harry let out an insufferable sigh and waited for the teenager to release him.

The moment that the wizard was finally released, Taiki used his other hand to pick the paper up and to practically shove it under the wizard's nose.

"Read, read!" He gestured to Harry with his other hand.

Harry's eyes scanned over the first paragraph. There might be a couple of words and phrases that were still tricky for him to understand, but he understood the story behind the words.

"Ume?" Harry questioned, cocking his head in surprise.

Taiki blushed slightly before grinning broadly. "Yes! She said yes! I finally got her to go on a date with me Hari!"

"That is good. Congratulations!" The wizard said, patting the boy on the arm – finally able to carefully hide the potion in one of his drawers of the desk he was working on, all the while listening to Taiki's rambling.

His fingers lingered a little longer on the potion than necessary, before closing the drawer. The first stage of the potion had been finished. The next phase was going to be more difficult. He was ready however. Even if he might never see them again, he would make his friends proud.

He was not going to ruin the Animagus potion because he was careless with it.

So he turned his full attention to Taiki, who was now nervously pacing around the room.

"What should I do on our first date?"

Harry snorted in amusement at the brown-haired boy's antics. Taiki might be physically older than him, but both of them knew very well that Harry was mentally older, hence the fact that Taiki always came to him for advice.

~Memory~

"_Whoa Bro, you have had a rough life haven't you?" Taiki said when he saw the wizard's eyes, just before he had woken up. Harry drowsily noticed that the teenager was sitting on the bed he had told Harry to sleep in after apologizing once again for spilling his potion._

"_Wha…?" Harry's eyes sharpened immediately, glancing around. The teenager pointed at Harry's eyes, his finger very close to Harry's face which caused the young healer to flinch away as he crossed his eyes._

"That _is what I mean. I know that look." Taiki had said._

_Harry had decided not to say anything, since objecting to the teenager's observations would probably make it only worse. "Who?" He asked as he stretched his arms above his head._

_Taiki stared at him for a while and turn to the window. "My Dad." Taiki sighed. They were silent for a while before the brown-haired teen jumped up. "Well come on Hari! Let's go and eat! My aunt makes the most delicious breakfast!"_

_Harry had allowed himself to be dragged along, a pensive look on his face._

~Back to reality~

Shaking his head, Harry stopped reminiscing of the past.

Wiping his hands on his light trousers, he reached out and grasped the back of Taiki's collar, effectively stopping him in his tracks in an attempt to calm him down.

The boy grinned sheepishly at him and Harry smiled back in amusement.

'I didn't want to get close to him at first.' Harry remembered his distant attitude to nearly everyone in the village. 'But I'm not sure whether I can keep my distance much longer.'

Whether Harry liked it or not, he was slowly but surely starting to consider Taiki to be a best friend of sorts.

A hand waved in front of him and he blinked as the paper was once again shoved back in his face. Rolling his eyes he continued reading and frowned. Ever so slowly turning towards Taiki, he pointed to the rest of the paper.

"You actually believe this?" Harry stated. He clearly didn't like it.

"Why not? Everyone talks about _the Seirei_!"

He was met with a blank stare.

'Seirei?' Harry's repeated in surprise. 'Are they actually calling me Seire…-' His thought was cut off as he realized something.

'Wait a moment. That title actually sounds a lot like '_Sirius'_…

Oh the irony.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. After all this time, Sirius's death was still a very tense subject for him.

Taiki, who was not aware of Harry's inner turmoil, looked scandalized. "What you _don't_ know?"

Harry just scratched his head, as he glanced at the paper again. "Never heard of a Seirei."

Taiki suddenly looked guilty. "I thought you would have heard of it at least… Okami no Hoshi? Death Omen?" He tried again.

Harry just shrugged.

The other teenager frowned for a moment before he shook his head and continued his story, looking a bit more cheerful again. "Well, then I just have to tell you! Nobody knows who he is and why he is even helping out. There are many stories going around. One is that he is a lost ninja, fighting just because he is bored. Others say that he is a ghost defending his land."

He waggled his fingers in a threatening manner. "Nobody has seen his face, so they can't be sure either! I'm sure he is a ninja though, since ghosts don't exist and all. Though I heard someone talk about a simple villager that found a way to obtain superpowers…"

Harry momentarily wondered if the young man realized that he was rambling again.

"…But it doesn't matter though, that guy sounds awesome anyway." Taiki continued his little rant, making the appropriate gestures to accompany the story the whole time, since he had more than enough practice to do it without much effort. He was doing it so fast that Harry was happy that he had developed an interest in learning how to lip-read, since he was going slightly too fast to follow.

'Thank Merlin that I had Legilimens to help me pick up the language up so much faster.'

It would have been a real pain to follow the one-sided conversation otherwise.

"A few days ago, they spotted him again, but only briefly. You know those thieves that raided Aloe Village a couple of months ago? They say that his first appearance was there." Judging by Taiki's expression he was using a tone appropriate for telling a ghost story.

"Nobody knows where he comes from and…" Harry just frowned and stared out of the window. His eyes glanced a back a couple of times to see if Taiki was already done talking, but the teenager was still in the middle of his story.

"…say that he is unbelievably fast, like a ninja, you know? Not to mention that…"

'Hmmm… this might prove troublesome.' Harry thought, seeing how this 'Seirei' has suddenly become a hit around here. 'There goes my peace and quiet.'

Taiki might be easily distracted, but didn't take very long for him to notice that he had lost the healer's interest.

"Hari, are you even listening?" He complained.

"I'm sorry, my thoughts got distracted. Though I'm not interested in this guy." Harry waved his hand in a dismissing manner.

"What? But he is like a hero around here!"

"I don't care. He could be one big fluke anyway."

"How can you say that?"

"I'm just not interested." Harry said, turning around in an attempt to stop their conversation.

'Seirei… Sirius.' The thought continued to be stuck in his brain.

"Wha…!" He startled when his collar was suddenly grabbed and he was forcefully turned around to come eye to eye with Taiki's grey eyes. They were studying him intensely for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. Harry suddenly felt nervous under the stare. 'Please don't tell me that he thinks that I'm…'

"I get it!"

Harry cringed, which only proved to encourage Taiki even more. "You are acting odd, you know! I know you Hari, so you don't even have to try and hide it."

The wizard was slowly starting to tense up. 'Shit! What do I do? Should I _Obliviate_ him? Is that even possible?'

"…You're jealous of that ninja!" He saw Taiki exclaim.

Harry blinked. 'Wait what?' He wondered.

"You're jealous!" Taiki repeated, seeing his confused expression.

Harry stared at him blankly before he started laughing. 'Jealous? Impossible!'

"No I'm not!" Harry denied, ignoring the narrowing of Taiki's eyes.

"Yes you are!"

"There is a chance that he doesn't even exist!" Harry protested.

"So you are not jealous?"

A laugh bubbled up in his throat again and Harry shook his head. This seemed to convince his friend somewhat. Reluctantly nodding, Taiki backed down a little. "Well, then you are blinded by your belief that he doesn't exist."

"I said he _might_ not exist."

"Don't try to cover it! I will prove to you that he does!"

"There is no need for tha…"

"My uncle said something about another raid that occurred yesterday in the village south of Aloe Village. A new gang I guess, since they should know better than to steal at a place that the Seirei has just been." Taiki stated, pondering about his words the same time.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise and then he became worried. "Taiki you really shouldn…"

"Calm down Hari! I will be fine. I'm the best swordsman in the village – don't tell my uncle that I said that though – and Seirei really won't hurt me! So I will only have to convince him tha…"

"Taiki!" Harry stated very sternly. However, judging by the way that Taiki winced, he might have accidently yelled a little too loud. "I know that you are bored, but there is no need to go out and prove yourself like that." Harry stated seriously.

"Recklessness won't help you in these kinds of situations." He couldn't help but shudder at the reminder of what people always had told him. Not that it had helped to reduce his own recklessness, but he tended to think a little longer before making a decision nowadays.

"Hari, you don't get it! You get to help people nearly every week! They even travel here for you to help them! You are so good at something that helps people out. I want to be able to do more as well! I can help too!" Taiki exclaimed, getting more frustrated.

"You are already valuable! You help your uncle nearly every day…"

"Yes! But I want more! I want adventure Hari!" Taiki tried to convey his frustrations to his friend.

Harry understood him all too well, but with Taiki in such an emotional state, reasoning wouldn't do much good. It was not often that he was being this irrational, but when he was it was difficult to get him out of it.

Sighing, the healer turned around and walked away.

"Just don't go confront those thugs please and don't forget to take your uncle with you alright? I'm sure you would be able to convince him. I don't want to have to heal your sorry ass when you come back." Harry stated, while making sure he could hear again.

He wasn't sure what Taiki's reaction was, but when he glanced over his shoulder he saw Taiki slip out of the door without looking back.

"Damn it." The healer whispered before he went to the drawer in order to put his potion in a more convenient place.

'A village south of Aloe huh? Why _would_ those thugs act so soon?' Harry pondered. 'Surely they would be more organized than that.'

Whatever was going on, Harry didn't like it. The whole situation smelt funny to his Gryffindor senses, which often led him to the unluckiest situations before.

Too bad that there was only one thing he could do.

'There goes my good night of sleep.' Harry bemoaned in his mind as he prepared to go out and help one other patient before he would follow after his friend.

Well, it seemed that trouble had finally managed to find him.

~ That night ~

It was dark, but Harry didn't mind.

If anything, it felt kind of good and exciting to hide in the shadows without the people that he was watching realizing that he was even there.

This was not the first time that he had hidden like this. Ever since he had arrived in the village, he had begun to feel restless. He had told himself that he would not get involved in any conflict, but he found that he could not stand by the sidelines when he _knew_ that he could help either. Especially when he heard stories floating around about raids, fights, murders and the like; that nagged his feeling of injustice too much. He also felt an urge that kept raging inside of him: an urge to move and test his boundaries, using his abilities and enjoying them.

To find use for this indirect gift.

Now that Harry was only known as a healer, he had the peaceful life that he had been looking for. If he were to show these people his strange powers and - dare he say it – become a powerful and well-known figure, that peaceful life would be destroyed. So he did what almost any kid would have done: create a second identity.

Very Slytherin-like indeed.

So this was how Harry became to be the figure called 'Seirei'.

'I never thought that the people would come up with a name that sounds so much like Sirius.' Harry thought, having mixed feelings about it.

Still, the identity served its purpose and that was the most important. Nobody connected the mysterious Seirei to the healer, which was the whole reason behind it.

After all, it would be better not to use any powers that would make him stand out even more besides the 'magical' healing that he already did. He got more than enough attention as it was. He was sure that it wouldn't take long before the news would reach the major cities. It would prove to be troublesome if they found out about his unusual abilities and the potential that it had. Harry knew that they wouldn't leave him alone, especially since Harry had become a lot stronger since he arrived in this world. Worse, they might see him as a threat and kill him.

'Or even worse, they might try and force me to breed in order to get control of my magic!' Harry shuddered at these thoughts.

No, those thoughts settled the matter. His other magical abilities shouldn't be used in broad daylight. So, Harry hid his abilities.

It had been very frustrating at first, but he slowly started to get used to switching identities all the time. Harry slowed down nearly all of his movements when he was in his healer identity as to not stand out. There had been a few slip-ups already, but luckily they didn't cause anyone to become really suspicious.

He couldn't help but think that creating a second identity had been one of his better ideas so far. No matter how content Harry was with having a place to stay, he had to admit that he missed the thrill of adventure.

He had to admit that he really was the "reckless boy" that Pomfrey had called him back at Hogwarts.

Which was why he was currently hiding in the shadows and looking down on a small camp of thugs who had just robbed one of the nearby villages. He had yet to find Taiki anywhere, if he even came. His eyes travelled over the numbers down below and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

'They are waiting for something.'

His Boy-Who-Lived sense tingled in warning and he slipped further back into the shadows. There was something not right about this.

'Something tells me that this won't be like Aloë Village.' Harry grumbled in his mind.

It had been so easy back then.

_~About a year ago~_

_It had taken a while for his restlessness to catch up to him. He had been been 'hiking' every day in order to get some running and training done, but there had always been that nagging in the back of his mind, begging for action. _

_So when there was an opportunity to get rid of it, it hadn't been difficult to make a choice. _

_The wizard had felt very suspicious when he had spotted the small group of frauds. They were apparently passing through every city as if they were some type of spiritual healers that could cure anything. They had been very successful so far, but for some reason they hadn't been very successful in the village that Harry lived in. They had been very surprised, angry and obnoxious. Taiki had helped his uncle and his gang to 'persuade' the frauds to leave._

_Unfortunately for them, healing had become very important to Harry and the mere idea of those three men and two women giving false hope to people while toggling so much hard-earned money from families made Harry incredibly angry._

_Which was why he was going to make sure the families got their money back. He had no idea how he was going to do it, but he was at least going to make sure that these frauds were not going to keep the money for their own._

'_I should be able to beat them right?' Harry couldn't help but wonder as he spotted the large guy that 'acted' as guard – a very fitting role._

_He should be able to beat them. Harry had been secretly training nearly every evening under the ruse that he was searching for more plants and enjoying the walks it provided him. In Harry's opinion, his wandless magic still lagged but it was good enough to protect himself. At least, once he managed to touch someone. His fighting style, on the other hand, was horrible. Then again, he had never been taught how to fight except for the few hand to hand combat lessons that he received from Ron, who had known what basics from his brothers. Those moves had been for pure self-defense though, including mostly dodging as it was one of the most important defenses against another wizard._

_Besides dodging, he was taught the basics of jijutsu and other fighting styles that focused on using your opponent's movements against you._

_So in the end, Harry could defend himself somewhat, but he would probably be screwed if he had to actually fight. _

'_Still, slashing at someone with a knife should be pretty easy if it comes to that.' He thought, not really liking the idea of killing someone, but more than prepared to defend himself._

'_Too bad I can't throw them.' He thought, slightly disappointed as he looked down on the small group. He had absolutely no clue how to properly use those knifes. He had once tried, cut himself, tried again and preceded to nearly cut off a finger. He had wisely decided to stop practicing after that._

'_After all, they haven't noticed me yet.' Harry thought, wondering if he should just try again._

_After having snuck around couple of times, it seemed that he could be very quiet. Though that was probably a side effect of the gravity-difference, as it made Harry feel light on his feet. For some reason they couldn't sense him coming either, though he was somewhat aware of the strange energy that seemed to be generated in some people. There were two in the group, that guard-guy and a woman - but the level was only slightly higher than that of the civilians, so he wasn't very worried._

'_Still that leaves my magic and my speed as my strength.' He mused, shifted his pose slightly as he watched one of the three men stand guard as the others slept. The man looked about to fall asleep though. _

_A grin formed on the teenager's face and he suddenly felt very confident in his abilities._

_'I should be able to do this… or I would be even worse than I thought.' _

_He readjusted the brown hood that he had transfigured and pulled it further over his head. He had used another brown cloth to hide the lower part of his face. He knew the cliches and knew even better to learn from them. It was best to keep your identity hidden, so hide your face. He moved his hand over his eyes to check if the magic was still there._

_He didn't want his currently very light blue eyes to change back to his green ones._

'_Very light eyes tend to give your opponent the idea that you are looking into your soul.' Harry couldn't remember who had once told him that. It did sound very much like Mad-Eye, but either way, the wizard decided that it couldn't hurt._

_Making sure that he was ready and that most of the thugs were nearly asleep, he silently jumped down the tree. He made sure to land solidly but as softly as possible, just like he had practiced so extensively after having seen those ninja fight in the trees. He let out a soft grunt as he hit the ground, right behind one of the two standing guard._

"_Stupefy" He lightly tapped the man in the back of his neck before the man could move away. The guard managed to cry out unfortunately, causing the other three to wake up as well. The woman who had been distracted stood right up and froze momentarily when he made eye-contact._

'_Was the glowing thing a little bit too much?' Harry wondered as he quickly used the opportunity and paralyzed her as well._

_A smirk graced his lips as turned his eyes to the three other people who were looking at him fearfully._

"_Hey! Who the hell are y…"_

_This was easier than he had thought._

~Back to the present ~

That had actually been fun in a sadistic way.

'No, something tells me that this is on a whole other level.' Harry grumbled as his eyes swept over the group consisting of about twelve men.

But what are they planning? That was the big question.

"Hey Jori, when is that Seirei-thing showing up?" Harry's eyes immediately tried to find out where the voice came from, having barely managed to pick up the conversation up even though he had increased his hearing as much as possible.

"Shut up! He could already be here damn it!"

"What's wrong, Jori are you scared?" Another man teased him.

"Of course not! Ghosts don't exist!" The man denied furiously, though his eyes did glance towards the woods every now and then. He was very nervous alright.

"I will kick that Seirei's ass! How dare he even try to stop us?"

"Shut it. The leader wants him dumbass!" Jori hissed at him.

"So I could still hurt him right?" The man on Jori's right grinned.

"Tch, with that technique of yours? You won't last a se…"

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with my technique!" Came the protest.

Harry's eyes had narrowed dangerously in the meantime. So he had been right. This had been a trap after all. He should have checked with the villagers first, though looking at the full bags that they carried, they had gone out to raid anyway.

Putting a hand to his forehead, Harry tried to decide on what to do. The leader would probably be stronger than these guys. Even though the people below would easily be taken care of if he was able to sneak around and put some runes on a couple of trees, he had no clue how the leader would react. If he had that strange energy called chakra-

"Boss! We found someone!"

"Let me go you filthy little…!" The rest was cut off as said 'filthy' and not-so-small man shoved the young man to the ground.

Harry sat frozen in the trees. 'Damn it all to hell.'

It was Taiki.

Trouble always had to find him eventually, didn't it?

**~End Chapter ~**

"Once_ a Griffindor..."_

Finally was able to get him in trouble again. What? Didn't you guys want some more action? Alright so it might just ever so slightly resemble an ending that might be a bit similar to something that you possible could call a cliffhanger... but that keeps you on your toes doesn't it? (read: I just still needs to write the rest and don't have the time anymore.) Er...I apologise?

Anyway, I hope that I managed to create a better image of Taiki for now. Let me know please, so share your thoughts! Review! :D

Hope to hear from you soon.

~Dreamyin


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new identity for himself.

**Beta**: Beloved Daughter, Thank you!

Hello dear readers! I wish you all the best wishes for these great and hopefully joyful days. I had some time left the last three days and decided to finish this chapter, because I wanted to give you all something to enjoy. (Plus I finally have some free time). Unfortunately, I failed my last exam, but I'm determined to enjoy these days anyway. So whether you had a wonderful Christmas so far, and especially if you for some reason didn't have some great time, I hope that this will cheer most of you up and distract you if it comes to the latter as well. So I will keep my announcements short and move onto the action!

Please enjoy!

**Chapter 7: Making Rumors Spread**

'No way…'

The figure lying on the ground coughed loudly to get some air in his lungs. It had most likely taken a beating to get him along, judging from the bruises and rough appearance of the battered young man's body. Struggling slightly, the teenager heaved himself up on all fours and slowly righted himself. His head stayed down for a moment before he raised it in order to glare at the two people that had manhandled him.

"Is _that _the Seirei? No way!" A grimy man snorted.

"That can't be. I mean, _look_ at the brat." Another man agreed, sneering at the teen's appearance.

"I thought he was supposed to hide his face." Another whispered.

"That kid is a joke." Someone exclaimed for all to hear, which made said kid twitch. His colleagues within hearing range started laughing and nodding in agreement.

"I agree." The thug right next to the teenager smirked and gave the teenager a rough push to the side, which was nearly enough to make him topple over.

"What is your name?" Came a deep voice from out of nowhere and everyone suddenly quieted down.

The young man glared at the direction from which the question – more like a demand – came from and scoffed. If they thought that he would be taken down so easily they were dead wrong. He might have gotten dragged in here, but it was a matter of finding a good opportunity to get away.

'I'm not that easy to get rid of.' He reminded himself, as he pursed his lips. He was not going to tell them anythi-

"Argh!" He growled out in pain as one of the henchmen standing right next to him roughly pulled on the hair on the back of his head. Going along with the movement, he came eye to eye with the henchman Ugly, who scowled down at him.

"Ueda-sama asked you a question, brat." Ugly growled, as if refusing to answer a question from the boss made the beaten-up teenager their number one enemy.

Yeah right. As if they were going to get to him that easily.

"I don't feel like fucking telling you who I am." He spat out at the so-called Ueda-sama, making sure to let some spit fly along with it. The expression that appeared on the henchman's face as he realized that he had just been spit on would have been absolutely hilarious, had it not been for the tense situation that he was currently in.

Henchman Ugly wasn't happy of course and rewarded him with a punch to the cheek. It hurt and he already felt his cheek heat up from the blow, but that didn't deter the teenager from grinning.

'That was worth it. He can't even hit properly. If it weren't for his friend, I would have gotten him easily.' The teen thought, glaring at the other henchman who was standing calmly next to him with his arms crossed.

The whispers of the men echoed around the clearing as they watched the small spectacle from a distance. They were all waiting for their leader to stand up.

After a while, in the circle around the middle campfire, a figure slowly heaved himself on his feet. Once he had reached his full height, it was easy to describe him as very tall and muscled. He also had broad shoulders, which his proud posture seemed to emphasize even more. His presence matched the voice from before quite well: demanding and confident.

The people around him quieted at the slightest movement, showing just how well respected – or feared – he was by the men. Slowly, the leader turned around to face the ruckus and started walking towards the glaring teenager.

Ueda calmly strolled over to the teenager, his walk slow but strong, giving a very confident vibe that made him only more intimidating.

"I asked you a question." The cold and slightly arrogant voice simply stated. It was that arrogance that caused a shiver to run down the teen's spine.

"…"The teenager swallowed nervously, refusing to let go of his stubbornness.

A flash of steel was all that the captured teenager saw and a second later he felt a familiar coldness pushed against his neck. The man surely knew how to convince someone to speak up. Well, he thought, he could always lie, but if this was one of those ninja who was very good at spotting lies – and he was horrible at lying and bluffing – he would be screwed.

"Taiki." Taiki slowly stated, making sure to glare at the dark figure hovering over him. He could spot the smirk that the man wore as the man took a step away and waved his little dog away from Taiki.

Taiki made a move to stand up, but he was roughly pushed down again by one of the lackeys behind him, which earned a laugh from the gang. This also allowed the leader to effectively and literally tower over the teenager and Taiki couldn't help but swallow as he pushed himself back to his knees again.

His eyes immediately caught the movement of the knife that 'Ueda-sama' had started playing with, throwing it up and down in his hand as 'Ueda-sama' stared down at brown-haired teen and took his time studying the young man carefully. He didn't even take the effort to lower his head towards him, but instead shifted his eyes down to look Taiki in the eye. Whatever it was that he saw in Taiki's glare, it seemed to amuse the man greatly.

"Are you _Seirei_?" The man asked.

What kind of question was that?

'Shit, was this a trap? Had they actually been waiting for them? It was suspicious that they were camping so close to the village they raided but I never thought tha…'

He growled as the black-haired man in front of him kicked him in the stomach.

"Answer me brat. It is a very easy question, or are you stupid? Are you Seirei?"

'Damn, should I try lying? Does he want to kill the Seirei? Or would he kill me if I weren't? It surely didn't sound like he liked him.' The teen contemplated.

Better safe than sorry.

"No." Taiki easily drawled out, knowing very well that he wasn't.

"Oh really?" The leaders inquired, sounding even more amused and stopped playing with his knife.

"Then what where you doing here?"

"I was just wandering around." Taiki tried to sound casual.

"You have been cycling this clearing at least three times."

"…"

"You think I wouldn't notice?"

"No." Came the plain reply.

The man chuckled coldly at that and made a move to turn his back to the teen before he suddenly turned and punched him right in the face. A loud crack filled the clearing and some of the thugs couldn't help but wince in sympathy. The teenager's body was flung back from the force and a pained cry escaped his mouth.

"Stupid brat." The man spat at him.

"Useless. You may be quite skilled with that sword of yours…" He stated, taking in the battered forms of the lackeys that had gotten him here. Even the largest and most level-head one had difficulty walking with the painful-looking slash on his leg. Taiki was proud to say that he had not been easy to take down, even if they had taken him by surprise. "…but your stealth is absolutely horrible." He pushed the boy down just as he somewhat regained his senses again.

The swordsman toppled over once more and tensed when he was roughly pulled back on his knees again.

"You don't cover your tracks." The leader punched the teenager again, and Taiki started to see black dots hover in front of his eyes from the pain. "You over-estimate your own skills." The leader stated as he grabbed the collar of Taiki's white shirt to keep him in place for another punch.

He grinned down on the teenager as he hefted his hand again for another punch. "You make too much noise and…"

"…and _you _talk too much." Came a rough whisper right behind him.

Ueda's body tensed in surprise and Taiki's eyes widened as he took in the figure behind the man with surprise and hope in his eyes.

'Seirei.'

~Ueda~

Everyone startled as – seemingly out of nowhere - a figure appeared from the shadows right behind their leader and put a hand on the man's shoulder, immediately causing the leader's arm to freeze right where it was.

"Who the heck are you?" One dumb man cried from the crowd as everyone made a move to stand up.

It was then when half of the men noticed that the other half was actually out cold or even frozen in place. "What the hell!"

"Seirei!" One exclaimed and everyone froze.

The leader looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes when he saw a kunai pointed at his neck. "You are the one they call Seirei?" He inquired, glancing over the newcomer's attire, which in his opinion, suited the mysterious figure better than the pathetic green ninja-like headband that the other brat was wearing. He was clad in some kind of odd-looking long dark robe, with the large hood drawn up, which was effectively hiding his face in the shadows as his head was bowed forwards. Even the visible part of his lower face was hidden by a cloth.

It seemed that the figure knew how to remain unrecognizable at least.

"I have been waiting for you." The leader said, grinning as his eyes started to glint in excitement.

The man kept his head bowed, barely acknowledging Ueda's sentence with a bare tilt of the head.

"You have been causing trouble." Ueda continued, his voice far too casual for a simple conversation.

Still no reply.

"And I'm going to make sure to clean up the mess that you have been causing. So you should stop wandering these lands, stranger." In the last part of the sentence the tone of the leader changed. It became ice cold that would make nearly everyone shiver in fear. It promised pain and death.

Finally the Seirei spoke up, but to the surprise of some of Ueda's men, he didn't sound bothered by the threat at all.

"Let the boy go and we will talk." Seirei stated casually, his voice deformed in a low hoarse whisper, though there was a clear warning in his voice. 'Hurt him and I will make you regret it.'

"I didn't know that the Seirei was so protective of strangers." The tone didn't sound deterred by the warning at all, but more excited. He had an advantage here.

The man behind the leader remained silent before he suddenly swirled around and punched one of the thugs right in the face, a lackey who had been about to make a move to incapacitate the Seirei. Before Ueda could even move, the man had returned to his previous place.

'_Fast!' _The leader couldn't help but think. 'It is one thing to hear about it, but I didn't think he was this fast.' He would have to be careful.

"Try that again and I will hurt your leader." The man whispered roughly for all ears to hear and the leader couldn't doubt him. Not that it would likely be fatal. That would be improbable, seeing as he had never heard of someone having been killed by this man. Still, he didn't want to be the first, so he waved his men off.

"Fine, we will play nicely." Ueda drawled, sounding bored.

"Leave the boy and the items from the villagers and you may go."

He was rewarded with a couple of snorts and laughs.

"Oh but we didn't really come here for that." The leader smirked as he suddenly swirled around and caught the hand with the kunai in it and took out one of his own, which was caught by the stranger as well. The ninja struggled for a moment to get out of the man's grip, but it was too strong.

They were at a stalemate.

'This will be interesting.' Both men thought at the same time.

"We came for you, _Seirei_." Ueda whispered to the figure. For a moment, he couldn't help but be mesmerized by the icy light blue eyes that seemed to see right through him. They were reading his mind. They knew everything abo- He shook the thought off and smirked.

"I'm not afraid of ghosts." He whispered to the man, his eyes shimmering in excitement.

His opponent said nothing. The look in the stranger's eyes didn't even waver as it took in his smirk. The man couldn't be sure, because Seirei's lower face was covered, but he couldn't help but think that his entire face had remained blank. He was as cold as the color of his eyes made him out to be.

Ueda's eyes narrowed in anger. He felt like he was being underestimated, which made him determined to prove him wrong.

"I'm not afraid of ninja." Came the cool reply.

'So he did notice.' The ninja thought, as his smirk widened ever so slightly. 'As I had expected.'

The ninja's eyes flashed with an eagerness that the man caught easily.

"Well, we will just have to change that, won't we?" Ueda stated with a smirk.

Ueda abruptly tried to wrench his hand away, but failed. The grip was still as strong as it had been before. He started twisting himself out of the hold, but the man started copying him, forcing him to stop. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he made eye contact with the man in front of him. Now that he could look in the stranger's eye, he couldn't help but think that the man was constantly planning something.

The blue eyes suddenly flickered over to the brat that was being held on the ground. A cry and a thud followed soon after, which alerted the ninja that something was wrong. More cries followed from his lackeys, confirmed this fact.

"Fuck! Shit-face you let the brat escape!"

"Get him!"

A ruckus followed as nearly all of the thugs that followed him made to chase the teenager escaping. They knew that he didn't want any interference. He had made it very clear during their planning and they didn't even dare to move after having been waved away. An escaping teenager was the perfect distraction for them.

He wanted to turn around but he knew that it wasn't possible. He was confident that he could beat this troublemaker in front of him.

"You really shouldn't underestimate people." A hoarse whispered turned the leader's attention right back to the source of his problems. He didn't care about the boy. His lackeys would take care of him.

Seirei was more important.

"I will show you how much of a hypocrite you are, _Seirei_." The drawled out the last part, mocking him.

The blue-eyed figure didn't answer him, but instead stared at him blankly like before. Suddenly there was a slight tingling in the ninja's arm that put him on guard almost immediately.

He had been warned to make as little contact with the man as possible.

At this silent signal, the ninja pulled himself out of the man's grip, this time with the aid of some chakra and they jumped away from each other. Either fighter was immediately ready to move at any moment's notice. The ninja didn't waste any time and threw the kunai at the man, who deflected it with a clumsy-looking yet effective movement. It spoke of some experience, but it was unpredictable, which was the aspect that put the ninja on guard.

Seirei clearly wasn't a ninja. That movement lacked the basic training that it should have.

The ninja couldn't help but narrow his eyes. 'So he isn't trained as a ninja…then what is he?'

They darted around each other for a moment as they analyzed each other. The ninja threw himself forward and made a movement to punch the man in the face, which evoked a reflex of blocking the punch. Using this against Seirei, the ninja suddenly twisted around the block and kicked out.

'Got you.' He thought just a moment before he was sure that it would hit, but was caught off guard as the figure took a step out of his reach faster than he had thought was possible. Then his opponent made to grab his leg, which forced him to retreat. He had no clue what he would be able to do if he were to let him touch him.

Narrowing his eyes, he darted back, determined to create more distance between them so he could fight him on a long range. However, the stranger wasn't letting him go that easily. Instead he kept close, constantly making a movement to grab him. It was as if he was being shadowed. Haunted…

Maybe that name fit him after all.

It eventually took quick fireball jutsu to get the man to back off. He had managed to hit the man's sleeve, but the man had been quick on his feet and threw a kunai at him. It was poorly thrown, but the flames had blocked it from sight and it managed to hit his shoulder.

His whole arm tingled and blood tickled down his wound as he saw the man in front of him cradle the burn momentarily.

Smirking slightly, the ninja quickly moved through another pair of hand signals and threw the man off guard with a wind jutsu. Seirei groaned as he hit one of the trees and was too late to move away as Ueda kicked him right in the stomach, making the man cough up. The ninja slashed out with a kunai, but Seirei had managed to duck and roll away around the tree, taking cover behind it as he regained his composure.

Ueda narrowed his eyes as he circled around the tree. 'Where is he?'

He saw a flash of black robe disappear and the ninja quickly moved into the opposite direction, only to find… nothing. His quick instincts made the ninja look up and he jumped back as the man dropped down in an attempt to tackle him. He quickly rushed forward and tackled the man instead. They rolled on the ground as they tried to over-power each other.

They pushed and pulled at each other until Ueda finally managed to get the upper-hand, having more experience. He punched the spirit square in the face, earning a hiss in the process.

"Got you." He hissed at the ninja as he held a kunai to the man's neck.

The icy blue eyes regarded him with a certain tenseness, before his eyes gleamed, which made the man reconsider their current position. Ueda swore that Seirei was grinning and the alarm bells in his head were going crazy, but he was too late.

"No, _I_ got _you."_ The man underneath argued in a soft whisper.

Out of nowhere, something wrapped around the ninja's leg. With a forceful pull, he was hanging upside down and moved away from the man underneath him. He waved his arms in order to regain his orientation. The action might have been unexpected, but the man wasn't a ninja for nothing. Once he regained his orientation, Ueda threw the kunai that he had in his hand and managed to nick the other man's leg just as Seirei got back to his feet.

He quickly drew out more shuriken to throw, but Seirei darted away behind a tree where he allowed himself to sink down onto the ground. The shuriken followed his path and barely missed his feet each time until Seirei reached safety.

The blue-eyed man hissed in pain as he regarded the cut that the kunai made, before he pushed the pain aside and started another plan. Meanwhile, Ueda was hoping to have enough time to get himself out of his current predicament, all the while cursing himself for forgetting his number one rule when fighting this man.

'How the hell had I forgotten? I reminded myself constantly.'

It had only been after looking meeting those icy blue eyes… A shiver went down the ninja's spine as he tried to cut off whatever it was that was holding him upside down. He bent to reach his feet, but even though there was a pressure around his limb, he couldn't see or feel anything.

'This is unreal.' He growled as he put his hands together and started to channel his chakra through his entire body. It would be very chakra consuming, but he had to get out of there. He felt himself become dizzy when the grip on his left foot suddenly disappeared and he quickly twisted his body so that he could land safely on the ground.

Seirei was ready for him but so was the ninja for his attempt to surprise him. They continued to dance around each other, easily moving through the forest that spoke of experience from both parties. There was no advantage to gain from the surroundings. Neither party remained without injuries.

The ghostly figure in front of him had been burned, cut at the leg and shoulder with a kunai and had probably a couple of broken ribs from a quick punch that he had managed to give him. The latter had not come without a price though, as his feet felt slightly numb as if he couldn't put any power in it anymore. His elbow too, had been paralyzed and his eyes still itched from the strange jutsu he had put on him.

He ran towards the tree that Seirei was hiding behind and was just in time to see that the form of the ghost started to shimmer and-

'He disappeared. A camouflage jutsu?' The man tensed, trying to find the chakra source, only to find nothing.

'Absolutely nothing? That was nearly impossible!'

He was a ghost after all.

This was crazy.

Slowly but surely, the ninja started to realize that it wasn't enough to test the stranger by throwing a couple of kunai or testing his reflexes, speed and technique. Maybe it was for ninja, but this man… the things he could do seemed so unpredictable that he wasn't sure what to expect.

A shiver ran down his spine.

This man was something else. He was light on his feet and very _fast_. Just when he thought he would have him, his reflexes snapped out and stopped him. These defenses were something that he had never encountered before. The man was constantly reacting to his actions. For an offensive fighter like him, this unknown technique was a big disadvantage.

He had absolutely no clue what to do.

A drop of sweat rolled down his temple and he narrowed his eyes in concentration. He needed to do something, anything that would give him the advantage that he needed. He knew that that brat was still out there. They wouldn't dare kill him without his approval.

'I have to retreat silently.' A plan started to form in his head and the corner of his lip twitched in approval. 'Use any weaknesses.' He reminded himself.

'That should work.' He thought as he turned around and rushed away as fast as he could. He might not be able to sense Seirei, but he could pinpoint the location of his thugs easily. What would lead him to his opponents weak point.

Concentrating for a moment, he changed his direction towards his new target.

~Harry~

'Where is he going?' The wizard couldn't help but wonder as he rushed after the ninja.

It had been a relief to see Taiki escape, but Harry was well-aware of the danger that they were still both in. He was tiring quickly and he wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. The techniques that the ninja used were strong and it was only because of his reflexes and unpredictable methods – read magic - that he had held him off until now. Still, his magic didn't seem to hold up for long as the ninja channeled his chakra and he couldn't even get into the man's mind as easily as he could with the villagers.

Harry had no clue, what rank this ninja was, but he was certainly the strongest that he had encountered until now. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the painful leg, he continued to follow the retreating ninja.

He was suddenly aware of Taiki's presence and everything fell into place. He pushed himself forward, knowing that he was faster than his opponent. He would have to arrive there first.

"Get one step closer and I will hurt your friend!" He heard a familiar voice shout out in warning between the soft rustling sounds that mixed with it.

It didn't take long for the wizard to identify the voice as his friend's. His tone was tired, but it sounded clear which lifted up Harry's heart. Taiki was alright.

'Wait, if we are nearing Taiki… shit.' Harry gritted his teeth as he pushed himself forwards a little faster than before. He gave up the chase of his opponent and immediately headed for his friend.

"One step closer!" Came the warning again, less confident this time.

Someone laughed at him. "As if I care about him. We know the rules kid. Get caught and you might get killed." Someone yelled right back and a pained cry followed.

Harry bounded into the clearing that they were in and immediately took in the situation. Taiki was safe, though he looked with horrified eyes at the limp heavy man that laid now in his arms, a kunai poking right out of his chest where his heart was located.

The medic didn't have much time to process the current situation though, as he saw a shadow flicker over his best friend. The ninja was going to kill his friend. He was going to use him as hostage or even worse.

'Don't trust a ninja.' Harry reminded himself. They are the sneakiest bunch for a reason.

It was only because of the extra boost of energy and speed that Harry arrived just in time as he clamped his hand painfully around the outstretched hand of the leader. Taiki's eyes widened even further as Taiki crossed his eyes automatically to look at the kunai right under his nose. The wizard's frame shuddered at the thought of him having been even a second too late. He wasn't sure if he could have saved his friend…

'He is going down.' Harry's current icy blue eyes narrowed dangerously as he tightened the grasp around the ninja's arm, earning a loud crack in the process and a grunt of pain from the ninja attached to the arm.

He was done playing games.

With swipe of the other arm, the ninja tried to let him to get go, but Harry didn't allow it. With a quick movement he managed to get swing the leader over his shoulder, before grasping his throat with his other hand and slam him down on the ground. The leader choked out, not having expected him to arrive that soon to save his friend.

'If I hadn't seen this coming…' Harry still couldn't accept the possibility.

Even the medic in him for once didn't pity the man underneath him and instead encouraged himself to squeeze the man's neck a little more than necessary. A familiar feeling reared his head and his eyes raged with icy fury as he stared down at the man. His magic started reacting and made its way to the ninja, who suddenly started gasping out in pain.

It was so easy to kill him right now. He had been willing to kill his _friend._ A friend that he wanted to _protect._ Harry's knowledge about the healing that he possessed would make it so easy to return the favour...

Yet, it was only that part of him - the morals that he believed in as a healer - that stopped him from outright killing the ninja beneath him.

Though those pathetic panicky eyes might have helped as well.

Still, he had been so close.

"That's not nice." He hissed at the man, his hoarse whisper in place. "You will regret doing that."

With another hiss under his breath, the wizard channeled the magic in him and placed a few well-deserved curses on the man, which – thanks to the fact that the man wasn't a wizard himself – would be very difficult to take away.

The ninja gritted his teeth as pain accompanied some of them and started shaking.

Harry was careful with selecting the curses, since some could possibly quickly erode away because of the chakra, but the healer was sure there were a couple which the ninja couldn't get rid of so easily without some help. Harry wouldn't be able to paralyze the man, or kill him, but Harry would make sure that he would regret this day for a long time.

'As long as I can keep a hold on him, he will be paralyzed.' Harry realised, his eyes blazing as he glared at his opponent.

It was a down-side of fighting ninja. Some of them were very difficult to paralyze and unfortunately this ninja was one of them. Luckily the man had burned enough chakra for him to hold him like this, but he would be back on his feet if he were to let go.

Not that said ninja knew that, Harry thought with satisfaction. Nor was he planning to give the man the chance.

The man beneath him finally gasped as suddenly all feeling in his limbs left him, which caused fear to take a hold of the ninja. Pain was something that ninja could take. Even death was an aspect of a ninja's life that was accepted more than was currently happening to the man. There was often nothing more important to a ninja than their senses and their bodies. It was one of the tools for their existence. Without them, they were nothing.

"Stop." The man suddenly pleaded, eyes wide and fearful.

"I never want to see or hear from you in these woods again." Harry hissed at him. "You will leave everyone here in peace understood?"

"..."

"_Understood_?"

"…Hai." The man growled as his access to his air supply was suddenly restricted. Harry glared at four followers that were left conscious. They were all ready to run away at any moment.

"Do _you_ understand?" He hissed at them as well. They nodded feverishly, most likely nearly shitting themselves from seeing their powerful leader being rendered useless by the 'mysterious stranger' that they had mocked for so long.

"H-hai!"

With a last narrowing of the eye, Harry glared down at the figure beneath him –which started to turn a slightly red and blue color.

"Don't threaten ghosts, they have the tendency to find and haunt you." He hissed as a last warning, feeling very much satisfied with the fearful shudder that he felt under his hand, before he easily knocked him out.

Stupid Ninja.

Taiki had knocked out two of the leader's men with a sword that he had managed to obtain in the meantime. With a quick sprint, Harry was able to get behind the other fleeing two and knock them out with a bit of magic.

Only then, he slowly started to relax and he drew back his hood over his head, even though his hair was covered by the dark cloth that hid both his hair and the lower part of his face.

He loosely clenched and unclenched his hand. 'I nearly hurt him so much that I lost control...' He sighed heavily. 'I have to be careful next time.'

At least he got out pretty safely.

'They underestimated me. If there had been one more ninja, everything would have ended differently.' An icy shiver ran down Harry's spine as the thought went through his head.

Slowly, the wizard turned towards the only other conscious man left and locked his eyes with him. Rising his eyebrows ever so slightly, he looked at Taiki questioningly. Meanwhile, Taiki was staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face and his eyes unfocused every once in a while.

The brown-haired teen was most likely overwhelmed with what had just happened. Harry glanced at the dead body that lied a few feet away from him. The comradeship - more like the lack thereof- in these parts of the world was horrible sometimes. No matter how much Harry had seen it happen before, certainly when it concerned Death Eaters in his previous world, he couldn't get used to it.

Death was nothing new to him – ironically, it might even be literally part of him- but it was still sad to see.

He hoped that Taiki would be able to deal with it. He would make sure to keep a careful eye on him when they got back.

"Hnnn…"

That simple sound seemed to shake Taiki out of his thoughts and he almost immediately bowed.

"Ah… I apologize, Seirei-san. Thank you. Had you not come…" He straightened and nervously rubbed his neck. "I would have been dead."

Harry made it a point to stare at his friend for a long time, which made Taiki very nervous. In an effort to have a distraction, Taiki started to inspect his dual swords, which seemed to be fine. There was no way that Harry was going to tell him that he was surprised that his friend was that good with his swords. The healer had known he was good, but he never thought that Taiki could fight so many people at the same time. There had been at least ten men, all armed and bloodthirsty.

Taiki would have been dead had he not been good enough to keep those lackeys off him.

Though Harry would have known if Taiki had been in real life threatening danger and would have acted accordingly during his own fight. This was thanks to the fact that all his headbandsall contained a crudely copied rune from Hermione's design. It had been her last incomplete creation during their travels together and Harry had only managed to make it work with blood.

Yet, he had not once felt his own seal burn except for the last moment that the leader had charged at him.

It was certainly not the time to compliment his friend though.

His friend didn't seem to think so either. Instead, he looked slightly ashamed at his foolishness and finally spoke up after having been stared at for a while by those icy blue eyes.

"Seirei…thank you once more. I will learn from this. A friend warned me before and I should have listened more carefully. He has always been wiser than me, having gone through a lot more and having much more life experience. He never tells me, but I can see it in his eyes which…" Taiki trailed off when he realized that he had started rambling and coughed sheepishly.

"I err- He might be willing to take care of your wounds. I mean, he most certainly will be." The teenager continued, becoming even more nervous the longer that Harry stared at him. It was only at the mention of his wounds that Harry realized that his left arm was throbbing quite painfully as well.

Glancing down, he noticed that the ninja had managed to pierce his arm with another kunai. The blood was running down his robe, but the blood was already clotting. It wouldn't be too difficult to take care of his wounds. Just tiring and a pain in the ass.

"Hnn…"He hummed again and turned around to walk away, trying and failing to hide his limb.

He stopped when Taiki suddenly stood in front of him, blocking his path as politely as possible.

"Seirei-sama" Harry's eyes widened mentally. 'Sama? Oh please don't let him address me like that!'

Harry nearly face-palmed as Taiki continued talking to him. "I insist that you should take care of those wounds… He is living in…" He seemed unsure whether he should tell the man where Hari lived.

"No." Harry made sure to cut him off.

"His name is Hari; he is a really good healer. He has cured cases that everyone has given up hope on!" Taiki started to defend his friend.

"I heard about him. I will find him if I need to." He calmly stated. Taiki blinked in surprise but nodded ever so slowly. Hari's fame had been spreading ever so slightly after all the last couple of months.

"Be careful next time." Harry slowly whispered after a while of having let Taiki sweat for a while and turned around to walk away.

"Wait. Your wounds…"

"Goodbye."

With that Taiki was left behind, feeling very stupid and somewhat criticized. Harry hid in a tree to wait for his friend to move away, so that he could clean up behind him and make sure that the stuff got back to their rightful place, like the bait of the raid.

"Well, that didn't go so well." Taiki mumbled out loud as he strolled away, a clear limp visible in his stroll. "Shit, Hari is going to kill me."

Harry rolled his eyes in frustration and amusement. 'Indeed. Now I wonder how long it will take him to show up at my door. Or will he hide it from me?'

Knowing Taiki, he would bet on the latter.

When he was sure that Taiki had retreated, Harry got back down, right as the leader started to regain consciousness once again. He couldn't help but feel slightly sadistic as he put him out with a quick blow to the head before getting out some rope.

He had a delivery to make.

~Next morning~

The few early risers of villagers in the previously-raided village startled in surprise as they spotted all of their stolen possessions carefully spread out over their small square. Their surprise became even greater as they spotted the small group of men tied up against the old water well in the middle of the square.

"D-d-amn Seirei." Were the only words that they managed to get out of the thugs. The what-seemed-to-be-their leader tried to shut them up, but for some reason his voice had become mute. The villagers grinned at each other, having heard rumors about a ghost – rough shinobi, demon, or whatever other people came up with – that haunted the woods before.

The one man that didn't believe in the stories – the chief – couldn't help but feel slightly overwhelmed by it all. He had been the one that had alerted Konoha to the problem and asked for some aid, though it seemed that it wasn't really necessary anymore. Shaking his head, he looked over at his people and couldn't help but chuckle at the smug looks they were shooting him, especially the children.

"Alright, alright!" He called out. "He _might_ exist."

Nearing the small group of mostly unconscious man, he couldn't help but wonder how anyone could have done this. This Seirei had to be a ninja right? His eyes roamed over the condition of the men. Some didn't seem hurt at all. Others seemed battered in some way, but fine otherwise. It was only the leader that seemed like he really got into a rough fight. His throat was bruised and he seemed to have been hurt on different places, but the worst injuries had been bandaged. They seemed to be taken care of pretty well, even though some of those bindings did look a little tighter than necessary.

The chief shivered slightly as the ninja suddenly looked up and glared furiously at him. The man seemed to take a deep breath to shout at him. The chief couldn't help but blink when no sound came out of his mouth. He really couldn't make any sound anymore. It was odd, creepy and a relief at the same time.

Something on the ground caught his attention, and he took a look at the kanji written on the ground.

'Please lock safely away.' Was written in the sand before the tied-up group and an arrow specifically pointed to the angry leader.

"Was this the work of Seirei?" The major couldn't help but ask, just to confirm the grumbling of the men before. He was rewarded with a venomous glare and hisses from the leader and several growls from the humiliated thugs.

It seemed it had been the spirit then. He had done some good deeds before in other villages and now he had helped them get their precious objects back. A girl cried out happily as she retrieved her precious and valuable comb, an object that was her last reminder of her mother. A shopkeeper sighed in relief as he saw his precious items right in front of him. He would be able to continue on his business again soon.

The villagers couldn't help but celebrate and would share their story with anyone that came by. Thus the stories and rumors continued to spread ever so slowly. That same day, a pair of ninja came by who had been called to regain their precious objects.

"What do you mean it has already been taken care of?" The tallest spoke up. The chief had a feeling that the man was disappointed, which the ninja actually was. He had kind of been yearning for some action. His usual position in the village made him unable to get out a lot. Teaching might be his passion, but going fully out once in a while might was a welcome change in his usual routine.

The major of the large village shrugged rather helplessly.

"I'm sorry nin-"

"Umino Iruka." The man corrected him, gently.

"I'm sorry, Umino-san, but your help is no longer needed. Seirei has taken care of it already."

"Seirei?" The ninja inquired, his interest peaking.

"You haven't heard about him yet?" The major's wife inquired, surprised.

"No." The ninja admitted. "Though I would be very interested in hearing about this… spirit."

The woman smiled, an excited glint entering her eye at the thought of sharing the stories that had been going around for the last couple of weeks. "Of course, over a cup of tea perhaps?"

"That would be lovely." Iruka smiled politely and his female companion sighed in a fashion as if she was suddenly suffering from boredom.

"First, the old man puts you in charge… and now we don't even get to kick some ass?" The purple-haired woman complained.

Iruka sweat-dropped as his disappointed companion walked- more like stomped- over to the group of thugs to inspect them, her trench coat billowing as she did. The intimidating woman had already made it known that she didn't like the fact that he was appointed as the team-leader.

Even though she was teasing him about… 'certain opportunities he would have with her as her leader'- he pushed down the flush on his cheeks that he felt coming – he suspected that she was a little bit annoyed with it still. Most jounin would be.

Then again it was not often that he got to be in charge while working with the jounin, but the Hokage had said that it would be good practice for him. If that wasn't a sign of the Hokage being up to something, then he didn't know what was. Shaking his head, Iruka turned back to the mayor.

"We will 'escort' the ninja back to Konoha today if that is alright with you. We have been looking for the leader Ueda Nori for a long time, but he was always a bit slippery when it came to hiding. I'm sure the Hokage will be very pleased." Iruka stated with a pleasant smile that seemed to make the civilians less tense of being around a 'killer-machine'.

"Arigato Umino-san. Now, please come in. I will make tea."

~Harry~

Struggling to get the fabric away from his face, he tugged away the cloth that hid the lower part of his face.

It allowed Harry to gasp for breath a little easier as he finally reached the outer skirmishes of his village. It had taken a lot of energy for him to fight that damn ninja. Adding to the fact that he had to deliver the trash and then run such a long distance in order to arrive earlier than Taiki, Harry was simply and utterly exhausted. Still, the wizard made sure to scan his surroundings. He didn't have the power to make himself invisible anymore, so he would have to stick to the old fashioned away.

He even had released the glamour charm on his face in order to save up energy. He had to be careful not to be seen.

So he planned to change clothes somewhere out of sight. He looked around him, before his gaze moved up. The trees would be the best option, he decided. With some effort he ran up a tree and tried to grab the lower branch. He missed.

'Damn it.'

Waving his arms comically in front of him, he landed on the ground and managed to roll his body along with the fall just in time.

Harry ended up on his back on the ground with his limps outstretched around him and a grumpy look on his face. Exhaustion hit him and he didn't feel like taking some effort to push himself up at all. A movement in the corner of his eyes alerted him of a presence near him.

He tensed, before he sighed in relief. It was simply a little furry chestnut-colored squirrel.

"Hi little guy, I didn't notice you at all." He mumbled under his breath.

The squirrel froze as he looked at him, as if he hadn't noticed his presence before. Then it perked up its head and bounced a few feet closer to him, as if it was curious but unsure how the wizard would react.

"Aren't you afraid of me, little guy?" Harry smiled in amusement at the odd situation.

The squirrel moved close enough that Harry could nearly touch him if Harry wished to, but he didn't make any move because he knew how skittish those animals were. Instead he remained silent and watched in curiosity what the squirrel would do. The head of the squirrel twitched from side to side, its tail up and stretched before the animal seemed to relax and close in on the human in front of him.

Harry watched in surprise as the animal touched his bare cheek, before it peered curiously into the hood that had fallen back on the ground. The wizard repressed a twitch as the tiny paws on the animal tickled his cheek and started moving through his hair. Then the animal suddenly slipped into the hood of his robe and started moving around, earning a laugh from the mysterious Seirei. The mysterious air surrounding the wizard seemed to break apart as he chuckled out loud and tried to twist away from the tickling without crushing the small animal.

Laughing, Harry moved to sit up and cried out when he felt the squirrel move down the back of his shirt.

"Get out, sneaky guy!"

After a while, Harry managed to maneuver the animal to a place where he could carefully grab him and held him up in front of his face.

"Well I have to get going, little guy. Take care alright?" He told the animal as he put him down carefully.

He then stood up and scanned his surroundings one more time, though he was less tense than before. Deeming the situation safe, he quickly changed out of his robe and put on his usual clothes that he kept hidden in a pocket. Harry couldn't be happier with the fact that he had finally managed to pull off the shrinking charm.

'Well, it only works for less dense objects, but whatever.' Harry reminded himself as he pulled out the large pocket of his robe after having enlarged them out of sight from any passerby. 'I will just have to keep practicing.'

Eventually putting the robes and disguise in a small bag that he had taken with him, he casually moved towards the direction of the village, pulling out a couple of branches of different plants that he encountered and would probably be useful at a later date on the way. For any villager that would spot him, Hari had just come back from a very early morning walk.

Humming on the way, Harry tiredly moved towards his shed and unlocked it. Moving over to his bed, he promptly lay down, determined to get at least a few moments rest before Taiki would come surely charging in.

'Enjoy the peace while it lasts.' Harry reminded himself, suddenly feeling a familiar foreboding entering his body just before he fell asleep.

His mind might not fully realize it yet, but there were going to be some changes in the future. Whether he liked it or not.

**~End Chapter ~**

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is my gift for you guys, and extra long chappie as an update!

Next chapter, the plot will move along and the first meeting with- [ place here unrevealed secret ninja's name] – will occur.

Have wonderful holiday!

~Dreamyin


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary**: Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself.

**Beta**: **Beloved Daughter!** Thank you very much 'mate'!

Helloooo fabulous readers of mine! If this chapter doesn't go as some people hoped it would, don't worry I will try to make each special encounter as perfect as possible, just let me know which one you think deserves a little extra attention.

Also I'm so incredibly happy with all those - well mostly - positive responses that I have been writing a lot in one go, which eventually resulted in this _very_ long chapter. (nearly 10+! Must be the longest chap that I have ever written!) Anyway, I nearly decided to break this up into two chapters, but decided that you guys would (hopefully) probably appreciate this more.

So enjoy!

**Chapter 8: Breaking the Flow**

"Has Ueda been able to talk yet?"

"No Hokage-sama, Inoichi and Ibiki are currently trying to figure out how to break this jutsu that Seirei put on him."

The Hokage hummed.

So they call him Seirei?" The Hokage asked, as he looked over his village. He lit his pipe as he continued to listen with interest about the newcomer in his lands.

He had been aware of the rumors of this so-called 'Seirei' of course, but one had to be careful before believing any rumor. Some reports however, came from fairly reliable sources. Especially when they came from a certain Umino Iruka.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Iruka answered quickly as he stood at attention on the other side of the desk.

The Sandaime looked over at him and waved his hand to allow him to relax. Iruka was always one to follow formal procedures.

"Take a seat Iruka-san." He stated, not in the mood to have a formal conversation between them. The Hokage had been working far too hard all day and now that he was nearly done for now, he could do with some relaxation. Besides, he knew that Iruka would not take advantage of it anyway.

Even more important, Iruka-san had proved to be far more insightful when he wasn't focused on staying as still and silent as possible.

Iruka complied without question, though he was clearly caught off guard at the order. He was a mere Chuunin and yet the Hokage had already sent him on a mission where he was in charge of a Jounin – and with Anko of all people. Now he was suddenly allowed to speak his mind? He had a suspicion that the Hokage was testing him.

'I actually _am _being tested.' Iruka slowly started to realize as he noticed the amusement that momentarily flashed in Sarutobi's eyes. 'Now the question is, for what?'

"Just because you are now a Chuunin doesn't mean that I don't know how valuable you are, Iruka-kun."

"I'm nothing but a mere Chuunin, Hokage-sama." The man politely corrected him, though his tone sounded off when he spoke 'mere'.

"Ah, but Iruka-kun." The Hokage smiled at him. "Don't forget that you have something else that is so much more valuable… but I will come back to that later." Sarutobi said, tapping his temple to show what he meant.

Iruka nodded, having a feeling that he knew what the man was talking about.

"So have you searched for him?" The man sat down himself, before putting down the pipe to give the fairly new Chuunin his attention.

Iruka nodded once more. "Hai, we managed to track down traces from the fight, but nothing that gives us any more information about the identity of this mysterious man. I could not find any chakra signature either, only one belonging to Ueda himself. There is no information about what he looks like either – except that he has pale blue eyes – as he remained masked throughout the whole fight."

The brown-haired ninja frowned. "So besides the clothes, there was not much to describe him. According to Ueda…" Who had been more than willing to 'talk' after some 'encouragement' from Anko and a little help from Inoichi's mind jutsu "…Seirei was light on his feet, but did not have the grace of a ninja. It gives him an unpredictable nature. Furthermore, he seemed to be very defensive of the male that he saved. A stranger to him, Ueda had said."

"Ah yes, the swordsman. What do you know about his appearance?"

Iruka went along with the change of subject and shared the information that he had. "His name is Taiki. He is currently being checked by Inoichi-san to see if Ueda was being truthful while describing him. In the meantime, a sketch is being made of Seirei as we speak and we will be able to hand it out within a couple of hours."

"Very good." The Hokage dipped his head approvingly at the ninja in front of him as he opened the report that Iruka had written. His eyes glided over the detailed report and couldn't help but wish that all reports made to him were like this. Maybe his paperwork wouldn't be such a bore if it were.

There was a short silence as Iruka waited patiently for the Sandaime to finish his assessment, though he was oddly confident about it.

"You have been doing very well Iruka-san." The Sandaime smiled

"Hokage-sama?

"You have always been someone that has been able to get a certain respect from people. Even with your past as troublemaker, people look up to you."

Iruka suddenly felt a little bit wary but accepted the compliments anyway. "Thank you very much, Hokage-sama."

"Plus with the amount of skill that you have lately shown with keeping shinobi in line – no matter what age – you would be a very good teacher."

Iruka's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, a foreboding started to pool up in his stomach, as his mind started to read in between the lines.

"Even the troublemakers surely won't be impossible for you to manage, seeing as you have your own experiences in that…"

Oh no.

_Troublemaker._

'Shit.' Iruka cursed his luck. 'Surely he is not going senile? I'm not going to teach _him _of all people!'

He automatically rose to his feet, his defense reasoning kicking in. "Hokage-sama, I really don't think that this is a good idea. After all, as you know, the only reason why I am a Chuunin is…"

"Of course, I'm well aware Iruka-kun." There was a damn twinkle in the man's eye! "But a man of your capabilities must be able to do more things at once right? Besides, becoming an…"

'Please don't say it.' Iruka felt compelled to put his hands in front of him to stop the man, but as a well-trained ninja he kept as still as possible.

"…Academy instructor has always been a dream of yours, plus it gives you the perfect back-up." The Hokage continued, picking up his wooden pipe once more, as if their conversation had just ended.

Shit.

"Hokage-sama…"Iruka couldn't help but plead slightly and the Hokage's eyes softened slightly at the look in his eyes.

The Sandaime sighed heavily, his twinkle disappeared and his expression became more severe. "Umino Iruka." He stated, causing said ninja to tense up. "We are both well-aware _why_ you have not grabbed the chance to teach until now. You are the only one that I'm sure will be able to handle him."

"But what about Seirei?" The future academy teacher knew that he was losing the battle, but couldn't help but try.

The Hokage, seeing his ninja stand there slightly dejected, felt a bit of sadness pass through him. 'He doesn't realize just how similar they are.' He thought sadly, before he hardened himself.

"I will write to my student about the matter. He will keep track of any development. You have done a very good job Iruka-kun. I need you in this village. Keep an eye on him for me."

If he wouldn't agree, the man would make it an order. Iruka was well aware of it and didn't want his leader to be forced to play that card.

He respected him too much for that.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

He would just have to live with it.

~Harry~

Harry wasn't sure what to think when he slowly woke up without having been awakened by a certain loud friend barging into his shed. No, instead he had been left alone, allowing him to sleep all morning. It was now just after noon. He groggily rolled out of his bed, landing on the ground with a soft thud as he caught himself easily with his arms.

He promptly started doing push-ups to get himself to wake up. He started slowly, before clapping, before heaving his legs into the air.

Ron would be so jealous, he absently thought.

'Hmn… why hasn't Taiki come by?'

He couldn't help but wonder as he eventually stood up and stretched, wincing because of sore muscles that silently berated him for the strain he had put on them.

He was suddenly glad that he had decided to sleep in the bed of his so-called 'patient's room' instead of having climbed back up to his loft bedroom. He would probably have tumbled down the ladder and strained a couple of muscles if he had.

Slowly, Harry heaved his arms above his head and groaned in satisfaction when – with a pop - he felt something in his shoulder shift back to its proper place. Aha, so _that_ had been bothering him during the small exercise.

'The second day is the worst.' He reminded himself, which meant that tomorrow would be even more painful.

At least, it would be if not for his wonderful magic. Thank Merlin that he was a wizard. 'Bye bye, pain. Go bother Taiki-kun for a while.'

Closing his eyes, the wizard focused on the bruises that he had on his chest, legs and well…nearly everywhere. They slowly healed before as he used his hands to focus on certain spots, though his back was difficult to reach. Frowning he concentrated on letting the magic flow towards his back and heal them without aid of his hands. The process was tricky, tiring and slow but it worked. The tissue under the skin might not be completely healed, he was too exhausted for that, but at least Hari didn't look like he had just gotten out of a fight.

Even the pain in the muscles had decreased ever so slightly and Harry couldn't help but smile as he walked around much more comfortably – although there was still a numb lingering of pain, it was something he could ignore.

Much better.

Humming, he decided that he deserved a hot shower, even if the worst damage had been taken care of. He sighed blissfully as the rest of his body relaxed slightly as the warm temperature of the water heated up his body. Feeling much better, Harry changed into a pair of clean clothes and decided to head out into the village to see if he could find a certain brown-haired and surely bruised swordsman that was probably being far too stubborn or embarrassed to visit him.

Grasping one of his potions, something similar to a classic wizard's pain-relief potion, he locked the door behind him and headed out.

Walking down the path, he heard his name being called out. Hari nearly reacted but kept himself from glancing up just in time.

He grimaced slightly as he realized that the fight had caused him to react to sounds once more without thinking about it, meaning that he would have to watch his steps today to make sure that he would not fall back into routine. He focused on his ears and the sounds around him reduced to their usual soft whispers.

'Maybe it is time to heal my deafness.' He mused, but was quickly grasped by a fear. 'Maybe…' He repeated, though the tone didn't sound convincing.

His whole life here had been as a deaf medic. It had become a habit and for some reason he felt afraid and reluctant of letting that go.

'Why? It's not like they won't like you anymore?' He questioned himself, but he couldn't find an answer.

Frustrated with himself, Harry pushed the thought away as someone ran up to him, making sure to come into view first. The way that the friendly villagers always tried to keep his disability in mind usually warmed Harry's heart, but he couldn't help but twitch ever so slightly now as he suddenly felt guilty.

"Hari-san! Would you like to join us please?" Hari looked down at the young light blond-haired girl.

Harry blinked, slightly surprised at Yuki's offer. He knew her and her family of course. The last time they had had to visit him, she had accidently broken her arm while brawling with her brother. Harry had taken care of the brother's black eye as well. Yuki and Kenji had glared at each other the whole time. At least until Harry had whacked both on them playfully on the head and told them to stop and give each other a hug.

Their horrified expressions had been absolutely priceless but they had eventually done it under Harry's glare and stopped fighting for a whole day.

'Oh the power of love…' He stated airily in his head, blinking away an imaginary tear at the thought.

"Please?" She asked once again, putting her hands together in an effort to communicate with him even more before pointing to his right. He glanced over to into the direction she was pointing at and finally noticed that she and her family had been picnicking there with her.

His stomach suddenly reminded him loudly that he hadn't eaten yet.

She giggled at him and he laughed along with her. 'Well I guess I wouldn't be able to say no to that.' Harry decided, smiling kindly at her.

So he nodded his head as he smiled at her. "If it is no bother, then I would love to join you."

"Yaaay!" The girl cried out happily before she caught his hand and proceeded to drag him with her towards her family. Caught off guard for a moment, Harry could help but laugh as he stumbled after her while forced to hunch ever so slightly.

"Slow down, slow down." He teased her, but she wasn't listening to him.

Instead, she pushed him next to her previous sitting spot and sat right next to him. Harry politely greeted the two parents as he settled down and smiled at Kenji, who smiled brightly back at him.

The smile turned into a pout when Yuki sat down right between them. Yuki stuck her tongue out at her brother, which earned her a little push from him. Before Harry realized what was happening, they were bickering like they usually were.

Harry couldn't help but shake his head at their antics and chuckled slightly as their father sighed tiredly and proceeded to break up the fight, threatening them with having to hug each other once again.

For some reason, Harry didn't feel sad as he thought back to the antics of the Weasleys at the Burrow, but grinned at the scene instead as he accepted some snacks from Yuki's mother.

Taiki would probably come and look for him eventually, so Harry decided to enjoy the peaceful family moment. The swordsman could continue to lick his wounds for a bit longer.

~Taiki~

Meanwhile, said swordsman was indeed reluctant to visit his best friend.

Lounging on his bed, Taiki couldn't help but wonder whether he could just hide for a while to lick his wounds for a few days. Having actually confronted Seirei of all people was one thing, but facing Hari might be even worse, especially since he had given him such a big warning. His mother and aunt had already given him a whole lecture when he had tried to silently slip back to his room in the early morning.

They had not been happy that he had gone out to 'train' so late at night. They had made him stay awake until after breakfast.

His Uncle had stared at him for a while during breakfast, which forced Taiki to keep his face suspiciously blank. There was a slight narrowing of his uncle's eyes, now probably knowing that he was hiding something – which he was – but fortunately, the man had waved him off.

They would talk later. After all, his uncle was all about teaching a disciplined student, no matter if he was his nephew or not.

Taiki let out a loud heavy sigh in annoyance.

Reluctantly Taiki stood up and wincing slightly as he did, his hand reached to his side in a fruitless effort to sooth the pain. Groaning, the teenager decided to take a walk. He might go and visit Hari as well, seeing as it would be eventually futile to avoid the healer. Hari was far too cunning for his own good sometimes. He would know something was up almost immediately. It didn't matter if he tried to keep his injuries hidden or not, the healer would somehow find out and that would surely raise even more suspicion.

Besides, _just _maybe he could convince Hari to heal him either way.

The swordsman glared at himself as he moved in front of his mirror, grumbling slightly under his breath as he spotted the dark bruise on his cheek.

No way would Hari not notice that.

Securing his usual green headband before putting on his gloves, Taiki couldn't help but wonder why he had to be so stubborn. Even though he had more than managed to defend himself, it might have not been a very good idea after all. Sure he had kicked ass – many asses, he thought with a smirk - but he had also nearly gotten killed in the process and that thought still caused a shiver to run down Taiki's spine.

_One of his opponents laughed at him as Taiki held his sword at the man's ally's throat. His hand shot out to throw a weapon at him. Taiki had no choice but to react and there was the sound of steel slashing through skin which-_

'Stop thinking about it.' He reminded himself, feeling ill. 'The world is not a happy place. Death is just a part of it.' He continued as he slipped out of the front door.

As he walked down the pathway into the direction of the village, his eye caught some movement to his left. Blinking slightly, he stared at the animal that had caught his attention.

It was a squirrel, standing frozen in place as it watched the human stop.

Shrugging, Taiki continued on his way. However, something made him glance over to the creature a couple of times though and after having looked over for the fourth time, Taiki stopped. That squirrel was actually staring at him. Taiki was sure of it.

A frown appeared on his face. Suddenly, he had an odd sense of déjà vu as he carefully looked at the appearance of the animal. It surely looked ordinary enough. The chestnut-color was not as common in these parts of the woods, but it was nothing special. So why couldn't he shake off this feeling of familiarity?

Had he seen this animal before? He couldn't be sure. Sure he had seen many squirrels before, especially as a kid. His mother said that he and his father…Taiki paused for a while at the memory… had often gone out to spot squirrels when he was young.

But why was this one able to catch his attention like he did?

Curious, Taiki crouched down on the ground and watched at the animal bounced over to him before stopping halfway. "Hmm… why do you seem so familiar?" He pondered out loud and was surprised when the squirrel righted himself on his back feet.

A sudden inspiration hit him and he lay down on the ground, his head to the side to keep an eye on the suspicious squirrel. Now that their difference in height had been taken away, the squirrel came even closer. Actually so close that Taiki just felt the urge to grab him, but he calmed himself and waited with an odd sense of expectancy for the squirrel to do something.

"_Daddy look! Squirrel!"_

"_Calm down Taiki-kun, it won't leave if you just stay still, see?"_

Taiki was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt tiny pawn poke his cheek. His eyes widened as he saw the animal stare at him, almost in a curious fashion, before it seemed to sniff him.

Then before the swordsman could react, the tiny animal darted away from him and disappeared behind some bushes.

Huh?

He was too late to notice the shadow of the figure hovering over him.

"Open up!" Taiki, startled by Hari's voice, didn't have the time to fight the hand that clamped down under his jaw. Before he could comprehend what was going on, the liquid was poured down his throat. He gagged slightly as a hand heaved him up by his armpit so that he wouldn't choke on the liquid.

Almost immediately, Taiki tried to turn away from his assaulter and started pushing against the flask that was put against his mouth. Unfortunately for the teen, Hari's grip on the small flask pouring the horrible stuff into his mouth was too strong for him to fight and he had no other option than to quickly gulp it down, so he could breathe again.

As soon as the bottle was empty, the hand holding him in place disappeared and Taiki crouched down on all fours in an effort to spit the horrible taste out of his mouth.

"Don't you dare throw it up. I will give you twice as much if you do."

Taiki was too busy with trying to spit away the burning sensation on his tongue to react, but he was well aware that Hari could be sadistic enough to follow up to his threat.

"Urgh! That's just – Urgh!" He hated those strange 'potions' that Harry made.

He glared up at his assaulter, who grinned cheekily down at him.

"I thought you could use some help, seeing as you looked like you were about to pass out from the pain." Hari explained with a clearly made-up excuse.

Accepting that he wouldn't be able to taste anything the rest of the day, Taiki quickly righted himself and turned to Hari, who was calmly regarding his current state.

'Pain huh?' Taiki noted the medic's use of words. So the medic knew something had happened. Had the healer visited his Uncle to ask about him? Brushing off his pants and checking his white shirt – which was still as clean as it normally was – he tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

"No nothing of that sort. There was just this squirrel…" He trailed off when he realized how odd that might sound. Hari's mouth opened to say something, but he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, I was just, just relaxing?"

Hari gave him a strange look before pointedly looked at the bruise on Taiki's face.

"Yeah … a squirrel. Sure. More important Taiki… Do you have something to tell me?"

"Err…"It was amusing how easy it was for the swordsman to slip back into his usual mood when he was with his friend, even if it meant going back in his sheepish defensive mood. Backing down ever so slightly, Taiki waved his arms in front of him as if to wave the healer's gaze away.

"Really Hari, it's nothing! Just a bruise I got from practice, you see?"

He closed his eyes in a false pretense of safety as he inched further away from the medic. His eyes snapped open when he felt soft poke on his side, which caused a sharp pain to erupt in his side. He couldn't hold back a hiss as his hand immediately went back to protect the sour spot.

"Oh really?" The voice was far too sweet and Taiki's expression became even more sheepish as he saw a sly smile appear on Hari's face.

"Err… Yes?"

"Of course, because knowing how intelligent you are, you would have probably listened to my advice that I had given before right?"

"Ehh… which advice was it exactly? Oh yes don't worry, I drank enough water during training, so err… I got to see Ume right now. How about I will talk to you late- Itai! Hari, Ouch!"

Hari waved his finger in front of him in a playful and threatening fashion. As a healer, Hari knew exactly where to poke. It was the downside of being friends with a healer, Taiki decided as he saw a mischievous glint appear in Hari's eyes.

Oh no.

"Alright alright! I will tell you geesh!" The teen gave up, winching as he tried to dodge another poke, realizing that there was no postponing. "Would you mind healing those bruises though, because they are kind of painful."

Hari crossed his arms and sighed in a suffering manner. "Are you telling me that the potion didn't help?"

It had helped quite a lot actually, but Taiki wasn't going to tell him that after having been manhandled like that. He was not going to give the young man a reason to do that again.

The smirk that appeared on Hari's face told him that the medic knew exactly what was going on in his mind. "Fine, be stubborn by not admitting it. I will see what I can do for those broken ribs of yours."

'They are broken?' Taiki raised an eyebrow. 'Hari is surely getting better and better at this stuff.'

"Though you will have to tell me _everything_." Hari told Taiki as he dragged him away, ignoring the protests coming from his best friend.

"Fine, fine! Ouch no poking! Isn't there some kind of law that you should not hurt your patien- Ouch! Aw come on!"

Hari merrily laughed at him.

~Harry, about two months later ~

It had been good to see his friend in good health. Even the confrontation with Taiki's near death-experience, not to mention his first account with witnessing someone getting that brutally killed right in front of him.

It had been surprisingly easy to heal Taiki. His skills had been improving quickly in the last couple of months and the results showed.

He had reluctantly forgiven Taiki after making him promise not to do something so stupid again! At least not without his knowledge.

Life continued on and they both fell into their own routine easily enough. The only difference was that Harry seemed to get more and more visitors from other villages which forced him to work on cases which were becoming more complicated by the week. Still, seeing as Harry didn't have any other job to do, he enjoyed it a lot, even though it forced him to put less time into his studies.

And sometimes, if necessary, sleeping.

Though this often only happened in tense cases, that threatened someone's life, like the one a few days ago. He had been just in time to save the man from death. Harry frowned when he thought back to it. He had been so very sure that the man had actually been dead though. Only somehow, his desperate last effort to pull the man back had worked.

~Few days ago~

_Harry growled out in protest, sweat dripping down his temple and neck as he pushed even more magic into his hands that were positioned above the man's heart. The wizard could practically feel each heartbeat under his fingers, as it was slowly fading away._

_Thadum Tha-dum._

"_Don't you dare. Don't you dare leave yet!" He growled under his breath, knowing that the man's wife was standing in the corner of the room crying, being held back by one of the people that had brought them here. A sudden shiver run down Harry's back and he swore that he saw a silver lining appear around his patient._

'_Give him back!' He cried out, not fully realizing what he was thinking._

_No reaction, the silver remained._

_His magic pulsed within him and with a final last push, Harry stopped, unable to do anything else._

_Breathing heavily, the medic slumped forward, his hands still on the patient's chest. His breath came ragged and he became slowly aware of the woman's cries._

'_I failed.' Harry thought miserably as he clenched his eyes shut. It was normally important for a medic to distance yourself from your patient, but Harry had always had a difficult time doing that, especially when there was a person dear to the patient nearby._

_A wrinkled hand fell on his shoulder. "Hari-kun?"_

"_He's…He's…" Harry's eyes widened as he suddenly felt a familiar sensation under the man's skin. Harry couldn't help but listen for a couple of seconds before he finally dared to breathe out. "…alive. He's alive."_

_A cry of relief came from the corner of the room and the wife of the man was finally let go. Running forwards, Harry was just in time to catch the girl –ignoring his own aching muscles for the moment – as she practically tackled him._

"_Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank…" She continued to ramble as she clamped herself to the living man and to the medic who had saved his life. Patting her back for a moment, he pulled her away and turned her head to make eye contact._

"_It's alright. It's alright. I will need to watch him for a couple of days. I will keep him here alright? You can stay over if you like." The wife nodded without really thinking about it. Of course she was staying with the man she loved and nearly lost._

_Harry nodded and quickly went to get a few things she would need to stay the night, running his arm over his forehead to swipe the sweat away, mentally debating over one big dilemma._

_How the hell had he managed to do that?_

~Harry, current time~

Harry continued to ponder on the question that had been haunting his mind for the last couple of days and startled slightly as he realized that someone was talking to him.

"How are you holding up Hari-kun?"

"Wha…?"The wizard rubbed his eye as he felt someone tap his shoulder. He was nearly falling asleep, but he still had some ingredients to collect.

Noburu glanced at him with an unreadable face. "You should take better care of yourself."

"I'm feeling fine." The medic defended himself, stifling a large yawn.

Shaking his head, the older man helped the boy up from where he had been leaning against the tree. "Come on brat, eat some dinner with me."

Not even bothering to protest, Harry stretched and followed the man, knowing that his presence was appreciated by the sometimes somewhat lonely man. "How are you?" The medic asked.

The old man glanced over at him and ran a hand through his puffy grey hair. Right at the moment, Harry spotted some wariness and frustration in the man's eyes, before it was hidden away again and he turned around, waving his hand in dismissal. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Don't get all nosy on me, brat. You are the odd one of the two of us, plus you are the one who saved someone from death. I'm not going to bother you with pesky questions."

For a moment, Harry considered becoming actually nosy, just to annoy the man, but he didn't really feel like it. He was too tired and he didn't want to bother his friend if he really didn't want him too. At the thought, Harry had to yawn once more. Blinking his eyes sleepily, he continued to walk towards their destination.

A heavy sigh was the only warning that Harry got as he was pulled back by his collar. "When is the last time you have slept more than three hours?"

"Err… just yesterday?"

"How many hours?"

"Three."

Harry was 'suddenly' distracted by the very interesting trees that allowed him to avoid eye contact with his grandfather figure. He was used to not getting enough sleep. In his own world, he had managed to function on little sleep, seeing as when he did, Voldemort would come and haunt his dreams.

He cried out when he felt a soft whack on the back of his head. "Silly child."

"I had to keep an eye on the patient. He has only become completely stable just this morning." Harry defended himself.

"A patient can't have a doctor that does not take good care of himself." Noburu pointed out, giving him a soft glare.

"A patient can't have a doctor who is not willing to put as much time as necessary in his patients."

"If he doesn't feel well, he won't be as effective."

"As long as it is effective enough, he should be able to help out."

Noburu shook his head as he opened his door. "We will discuss this another time, brat. Just let's eat first and then…"

His eyes suddenly snapped open as his eyes focused on the wall of his house. Harry, confused at the strange reaction, followed the man's gaze but couldn't see anything that should have alerted the man.

Sure, he had never really paid attention to the man's wall before, so he wouldn't know, but his friend's reaction was an odd one.

Harry's eyes narrowed as his gaze was suddenly drawn to the reflection of the window and froze when he saw a shadow flash away into the tree, out of sight. He would have chalked it up to his imagination, if not for his experience with spotting fast-moving object. He focused on the energy of his surrounding and could faintly feel the energy of a ninja, somewhere.

There was a ninja hiding in the village? Why?

Still, it couldn't have been what Noburu had seen because he was staring at a particular spot on the wall and not the window.

"Noburu?" He tried to keep his voice calm, knowing that it was better to keep the façade of being oblivious to the stranger's presence. He really hoped that it wasn't a ninja, but knowing his luck – which had been quite good to him the last couple of months – it probably was.

The man snapped out of his stupor and shook his head.

"Ah, come on Harry. Let's eat and then you can sleep over at my place."

Harry frowned. "There is no need. I can just sleep in my…"

"No, I want you to actually sleep. You have too many distractions there to let you rest properly. I will ask Taiki to watch over your guests."

Harry grumbled something under his breath but he wasn't in the mood to argue, so he reluctantly nodded. Besides, he was telling the truth.

'Though there is something fishy going on.' Harry concluded as he saw Noburu glance over his shoulder before he closed the door behind him.

"Is something wrong?" He dared to ask.

Noburu actually seemed surprised that he had noticed something was off.

"No. Let's eat and play a game if you have enough energy for that." The man insisted.

The medic's eyes narrowed slightly at the poker face that the man was wearing. He had known Noburu long enough to know that something was up.

'I guess I will find out eventually.'

~Noburu~

Noburu sighed in relief as he saw the medic sleep peacefully the guest room, softly snoring. He couldn't help but suddenly remember the first time that the kid had slept here and when he had spotted the scar on the medic's forehead. Never had he ever thought that he would fit in the village so well. Not to mention that he had helped and saved so many people, that Noburu sometimes wondered if it had been fate that brought him here.

"That brat looked like hell." Noburu startled slightly as another male's voice cut off his thoughts, standing beside him as he closed the door, not wanting to disturb Hari's rest.

He gave his friend a pointed glace for his abrupt entrance, but didn't comment on it. "He pulled a man away from death's hands. He is allowed to look like that."

"I'm just saying." The man defended himself, waving his hand in a dismissing manner. "He will only have it rougher in the future." He added after a pause.

Noburu ran a hand through his fuzzy grey hair as he looked at his old friend in a worried manner. "Are you here to warn me?"

"Rumors are spreading. The 'medic' who can heal what ninja can't. That is surely a title that will draw in some… interest from powerful people now that the rumors are becoming more reliable." The man explained, accepting the small cup of sake that his informant handed him over.

"You mean that ninja will be after him?"

"That's a possibility."

"Like that snake of yours?"

"…"

Noburu sighed heavily, swirling his own sake around. This was exactly why he had taken it out in the first place. With a quick movement he gulped the first cup down in one go.

The ninja in front of him eyed his reaction. "You must care about him a lot." The white-haired ninja mused, knowing that the man usually didn't drink so much.

'Jiraiya, just say it." The older man told the Sannin.

Jiraiya just smiled at the silent accusation and copied Noburu's earlier action. He filled both of their cups with a quick movement.

"Oh?"

"You want information." Noburu said easily. "But you know my rules."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes in a suffering manner. 'Seriously, he has the mind of a ninja sometimes.' The man thought, but accepted the idea of sharing information easily. Noburu had been one of the first in his network and he had become good friends with him. He wouldn't betray him if it wasn't in conflict of his village. Besides, as long as it wasn't important information, it wouldn't hurt.

"The Hokage has yet to know about him." He admitted. "I was planning on telling him when I got back, but my journey was prolonged because of something else."

Noburu hummed under his breath, knowing that he wasn't able to let the ninja remain silent about Hari. Konoha wouldn't be that problematic. No, there were other villages that he was more worried about.

"So you are just passing through here?"

"I am."

"So why the sudden interest in my medic?" Noburu asked, seeing as he was the village's unofficial leader, he was used to call his village his own.

"I heard rumors." The man stated in a nonchalant manner that made Noburu narrow his eyes in suspicion.

"Have you been spying on the girls?" He nearly growled out, his fingers tightening around his cup.

Jiraiya started sweating ever so slightly as he laughed sheepishly at the man. "No, no. I was merely doing some research!" He became a bit more nervous as Noburu glared at him. "I haven't been peaking. I just overheard them."

Noburu grumbled under his breath as he took a sip of his sake, giving Jiraiya the benefit of the doubt. This time…

'With him, you are never sure.' He grumbled.

"What do you know about Seirei?"

Noburu's cup froze at his lips at the surprising question. "You mean from those stories that are floating around?"

"Mysterious hooded man that fights the crime around this place." Jiraiya explained, waving a hand airily in the air to show how cliché the idea was to him.

"He's real." Noburu stated.

The hand froze in the air. "Really?" The white-haired man drawled out, his tone was suddenly a lot more interested.

"Yes. I have heard so many things from my people – and I know who is prone to boasting or making things up – that I'm pretty convinced that there should be some truth behind it."

"Interesting. Any idea where he might come from?"

"No one knows. There have also been incidents where he didn't show up, so it is more likely that he simply tries to do what he can do."

Jiraiya could easily see that the man liked the idea of having a fighter that would help out when he could. "In contrast to ninja who only help when called out by the Hokage?" He questioned the man's thoughts.

Noburu sighed. "Look, I'm not against the Hokage, you know that, but I sometimes wished that there was more protection for smaller 'trivial'…" He moved two fingers of both hands up and down at the last word. "…matters of the country. It is usually difficult to react in time if you have to travel from Konoha. Why not set up a point where they can go and we can call for help? Hell, why not assign a ninja to every village for protection?"

"You know that it is not that easy."

"I know, but I wish it was."

There was a short silence between the two of them when Jiraiya suddenly tensed.

"Have there been ninja in this village?"

"The last couple of days? I haven't seen any." Noburu answered immediately, now also starting to tense.

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "Hari's rumors are spreading more quickly than I had thought." He muttered.

Noburu's eyes widened. "Are you telling me tha…"

Jiraiya nodded seriously. "People will be after the famous medic."

The white-haired man couldn't help but feel pity for Noburu as he clearly started to panic at that thought. Hari was part of his village and the main reason why all the people were doing so well, health-wise. He had lost enough people in his life and the man – though he often acted more gruff that he actually was – had a soft spot for the boy.

"Damn it." The man whispered. "What should we do?"

The Sannin sighed, scratching his painted cheek. "The best thing would be to provide some protection for the boy. Ninja would be better, seeing as that is what we are dealing with."

"That amount of money…"

"Make the boy earn it back. His healing can be paid by those other villages as well right?"

"That's against Hari's principles to charge more than necessary."

"Well, then the kid has to grow a backbone and start caring about his own well-being. Protection will be necessary eventually… whether he likes it or not."

Noburu started laughing. "Ha! That won't work. I don't know what the boy has been through before he got here Jiraiya, but if there is one thing that I know, then it is that Hari is a kind-hearted and sometimes softie whose passion is to help as many people as possible. He's not the type to back away for his own safety."

"Then bring him to Konoha."

"He won't leave this village."

"You don't want him to leave either." The ninja didn't mean to accuse him, seeing as it was just the way it was.

He didn't even have to admit it. It was obvious and Noburu knew it. He sighed.

"If it is for his own safety." The man admitted with reluctance. "Then I would accept him going, but I can admit that I don't want to lose him."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed slightly at the emotions that were visible in the man's eyes. "You love him like your son." He mumbled softly, causing his friend to tense.

"Yes." There was no moment of hesitation as he said this and Jiraiya couldn't help but sympathise the man.

There was a moment of silence as they regarded each other and the white-haired ninja sighed as he 'conceded' to the man's silent request.

"I will see what I can do for you." Jiraiya stated. "I don't know if the Hokage can spare any ninja in the long-run, but I will ask. There might be an issue of compensation of course, but we will work that out later on."

"Thank you."

"You're welco…"

There suddenly a noise coming from a certain room as a teen cried out in surprise.

"Hari!" Noburu and the Sannin were on their feet within a second.

A moment later, Jiraiya rushed into the guestroom and was just in time to see a ninja jump out of the window with a seemingly unconscious Hari on his shoulder. Cursing silently and yelling to Noburu that he would be right back, the ninja took off to chase the man.

That kid already proved to be a trouble-magnet.

'And why do I have the feeling that it will only be the beginning?' The Toad-sannin wondered.

~Harry~

It was interesting to listen to both of them talk about him. It was how his hearing now worked. As long as he allowed himself to hear and he kept really quiet himself, he would be able to hear snippets of the conversation.

He frowned as he listened to the rumors that were spreading.

'The medic who can heal what ninja can't? Seriously?' He couldn't help but wonder. At least he had found out why the ninja was here. He never thought that Noburu would be friends with him though, seeing as he always seemed like someone who disliked ninja. Still, Harry couldn't blame him. If he was indeed a spy or informant or whatever he was, it was the best to look the opposite.

That or this man was simply an exception.

As Harry continued to listen, he felt angry about the idea of leaving. He loved this village, this life. He was _not_ going away simply because there were some ninja after him. He had had worse, thank you very much. He would be able to defend himself. He had come far with his training. He had even been trying apparition, which for Harry was still as sickening as it always was.

The medic was so deep in thought, so concentrated on following the conversation while pretending to be asleep that he started when he suddenly felt a presence in his room.

Not just any presence. It was a ninja. He stayed as still as possible, snoring softly through his teeth – after having watched so many people sleeping he had once tried to imitate the sound to pass time – and hoped that it was simply Noburu's friend.

They were still talking though, meaning that this was-

Harry's breath hitched when the alarms in his head went off and he snapped his eyes open. He froze momentarily as he took in the completely black-clad - except for the eyes - unfamiliar man who was staring down at him with his hand outstretched as if to reach out for him.

Then his instincts caught up to the fact that there was a potential killer in his room and the medic cried out.

The unknown ninja, startled at his sudden awakening, immediately put a hand over him mouth.

But the damage was done and Harry was relieved to hear some movement in the house. His eyes snapped towards the man's face, trying to get eyecontact with him. The ninja's eyes were fully alert and panicked as he too heard the movement of the other ninja in the house.

Their eyes met only for a second, but it was enough for Hari.

Oh… Realization drew upon him and he hummed against the man's hand in an effort to talk to him.

Before Harry could protest any further, he suddenly felt himself being picked up.

No! That was not a good plan! Hari went for a disorientated punch to the man's face but the ninja easily dodged it and pushed his own arm in his stomach, making Harry double over.

Yet is was not as painful as the medic had expected. Harry felt him tap something on the back of his neck, which made him black out for a moment, but his magic was acting up in defense, allowing Harry to remain aware.

He heard his grandfather figure shout out in alarm. Playing along, knowing that he was too close to properly defend himself against a ninja with witnesses around, he let himself slump forward as the ninja heaved him over his shoulder.

In the meantime, Harry had long since switched to his Slytherin mentality.

'Stupid ninja.' He mentally sighed. 'This can get out of control.'

'I can maintain skin contact easily, so as long as he willing to carry me, I can take the advantage anytime I want. Plus, if I come along with weak protests, they will underestimate me for sure. Besides, for now they are probably only after my healing abilities, so they won't kill me at least. If there is more to it, I can escape and be able to come back for them at a later date."

The idea didn't sound perfect, but Harry barely had time to think of something else as the ninja jumped out of the window. He cried out in protest, feeling like throwing up the dinner he had with Noburu.

Those people sure are fast. He felt himself being shaken up and down as the ninja sped off and his eyes lit up when he felt another presence chasing after them. This time it was – 'Jiraiya was his name right?'- Noburu's ninja friend. He found himself subtly glancing up at the ninja.

He surely didn't look happy.

He looked about forty-five years old, which was old for a ninja. He was quick on his feet and his aura suddenly became a lot larger and more powerful. 'He _really_ is powerful.' Harry realized with a shiver and decided that he would be alright, without Seirei's help. Let the powerful ninja handle it. That did sound like a better plan.

Well maybe not necessarily a better plan, but it was not like he was going to be able to stop the ninja from saving him.

They had maybe just gone for one minute, when the ninja suddenly took a sharp turn to the left.

"Stop right there!" He heard Jiraiya say as his voice suddenly appeared right in front of him.

Another sharp turn made his stomach warn him that he wouldn't be able to keep this up for long, so Harry decided to wake up. Snapping his eyes open, he pushed himself up against the back of his kidnapper to orientate himself, before he started thrashing. This made it even more difficult for the ninja to maneuver away from the dangerous ninja.

"Let me goooo!" Harry growled, pounding on the back of the ninja. Just as he started to wonder if he should use some healing-magic to free himself, the black-clad ninja changed his tactics. Harry cried out in surprise when he was suddenly heaved off the man's shoulder and pushed against the chest of the ninja, a kunai at his throat.

'Alright, I take my words back. I want my original plan.' The medic gulped.

"You don't know who you are messing with, kid." Jiraiya said in a dangerous tone, which caused shivers to run down Hari's spine. He stood in front of them, his hands up in a surrendering manner, but clearly ready to move when necessary.

"One step closer…" The ninja merely replied, though Hari could feel him tense behind him.

"Why do you want the kid?"

"I'm not telling you anything old man." The ninja replied and Hari gulped as he felt the kunai draw just a little closer. "Now let me through, or this little medic will get it."

Hari could feel the man's breath brush past his right cheek. Glancing, towards the ninja's face, he hoped to get some eye-contact with the man, so that he could find out what was going on.

Had he changed his mind about not killing him? The thought made Harry shiver.

"Don't you have someone that he should heal?" Jiraiya questioned, silently bristling from being called old. The man's eyes flickered towards Harry's for just a moment, but it was enough for the medic to get a faint impression of their current situation. His eyes widened in surprise as he finally got more information that he had managed to get before.

Now, he knew what was going on.

How could something so simple, get so troublesome?

The ninja remained silent, but Hari was very aware of the shaking of the man's body. There was a story behind this. There was a reason why he had only acted after Harry had cried out. The medic was not aware that this 'Ken' had only grabbed him because the man had been afraid that he would be killed or either unable to convince him.

The man was afraid to lose someone. Ken had come here - something that could have cost him his life - to save someone. Someone that Harry could probably help.

"I will help if you need me to heal someone." The medic spoke up before he could help himself. 'If that is the only reason why he took me away.' He thought.

Both ninja froze.

"You only want me to heal someone right? Just one person right? Then I will go back to my village." Harry continued, not changing his mind. Instead, he felt more determined.

This was his job as a medic. It was his passion. He didn't care that this wasn't a citizen of Fire.

There was a short silence, before the kunai was drawn away from the medic's throat. "Hai."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "Kid, you don't know what you are getting into."

"I can't deny that, but I don't exactly know who you are either." Harry said easily, which made the white-haired ninja falter ever so slightly. "I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm doing."

"I want your weapons." The medic told the man, turning his head towards the stranger. "You will get them back when you bring me back safely."

The man reluctantly handed the medic his pouch and twitched when the medic still held up his hand. Retrieving one more kunai from his sleeve he handed it over. Harry rolled his eyes, knowing that he had more, but that was the beauty of being able to get an insight of someone's mind. He was not going to hurt him if he came along willingly.

He stepped away from the man and made eye contact again, which confirmed his story and filled the gabs. Poor man. He had only been trying to get him to help his child, but because he lived on the other side of the border, he had been too afraid that he would be declined when he noticed Fire's ninja present.

Harry suddenly felt a lot more relieved when his racing heart was able to calm itself again. "Well… How about you just bring me to the patient? Did you bring a friend along?"

Nodded silently, the completely black-clad man turned his back to him. Eying the Sannin's reaction wearily, he crouched down ever so slightly in a silent offer, which showed a lot of forced trust in the medic. It was a show of good will, Jiraiya realized and spoke up.

"I will come along with you, but only just to keep an eye on you." He glanced at Harry, who openly studied him for a moment.

"Shinobi of Konoha?" The medic muttered under his breath as he glanced at his headband and then met his eyes. The white-haired ninja met them blankly, daring him to tell him no.

The wizard frowned slightly before he nodded. "Well sure. Suit yourself. Just don't start a fight alright?"

Hari turned, missing the astonished amusement at his warning. Instead, he made sure to show some 'effort' in his jump when he hopped on the man's back.

He then looked over his shoulder at his self-proclaimed guard. "So you are a friend of Noburu's then?"

Jiraiya nodded.

"What did you change on his wall?" Harry's wariness seemed to surprise the white-haired ninja slightly - especially after seeing him offer help to his kidnapper of all people.

Jiraiya answered anyway. They would just have to make up a new warning. "I smeared some mud on the wall."

Frowning, Harry thought back and nodded before he motioned Jiraiya to take the weapons on the ground that he had just 'confiscated' from the other ninja.

"Well… shall we go than?" Harry asked, trying to shake of the odd experience of riding piggyback on the ninja's back.

He was ignored for the moment, as both ninja were busy looking at each other in a suspicious manner, daring the other to object to their current situation. With a roll of the eyes, Harry started to softly kick against the man's sides as if he were a horse, urging the ninja to go.

With a final glare, warning the Sannin not to stop him, the previous-kidnapper took off with Harry on his back.

As both ninja sprinted away, Harry couldn't help but shake his head.

'So much for taking some time to rest, right Noburu?'

**~End Chapter~**

Well, that surely asks for some more protection in the future! But what will they do? Even more important, _who_ will end up with the job of Hari-sitting? That is the question for next time.

I hope you enjoyed and I would appreciate it very much if you took some time to share your thoughts with me.

Hopefully till next time!

~Dreamyin


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary:** Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself.

**Beta**: Beloved Daughter! Thank you very much Smiley Face!

Dear all! Thank you once again for the incredible support that most of you showed. I also thank you for the little comments about some small plot holes! I also got a question about the Animagus Potion that I secretly tried to sush for the appropiate time. It will come!

I also got a question about any slash-pairings... I'm not planning on it.

Lastly, please enjoy the last chapter of part one!

**Chapter 9: Breaking Apart**

Jiraiya stared with hidden astonishment at the medic that was hovering over the girl, his bloody hands placed on the child's forehead and chest. Once in a while, Hari was muttering to himself so softly that it almost sounded like he was speaking another language.

It had spoken words that the young man hadn't even flinched when he had cut his hands to acquire some blood. Jiraiya had managed to spot the nearly invisible scars on the teen's hands and concluded that this was surely not the first time that he had used this method.

If anything, maybe it actually _was_ his method to heal.

Never had the Sannin thought that he would meet anyone whom could possibly be close or was even on Tsunade-hime's level of healing. Not to mention that the medic wasn't even a ninja!

That combination was mind-boggling.

How did he manage to do it then? A part of his brain couldn't help but feel very– _very_ much– intrigued by this strange power. Was it a blood-limit that had developed even without going through the standard ninja training? Mostly unheard of, but possible. Why didn't he sense any chakra though?

It was all fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, the Sannin was now determined to find out. If there was a way for other people to acquire this skill, it would be an enormous advantage for the world and Jiraiya's own personal dream, world peace.

In the meantime, the blood had stopped dripping down from Hari's hands a couple of times, forcing the medic to draw blood again.

The Sannin tried to figure out what kind of effect the blood had, but he couldn't find anything. It simply dripped down and then became more like a jelly substance, but never losing its similarity to blood. And, even though Jiraiya couldn't sense any chakra, there was _something_ there. Not that he could figure out what it was…

How frustrating.

That was only the abnormality that he could find though. The blood didn't glow. It didn't evaporate, nor did it dissolve into the skin. It didn't even change color.

Yet it seemed to work.

Because _whatever_ the medic was doing, color started to return to the child's face.

No matter that just about a half hour before, the poor child had been sweating, twisting, constantly moaning and groaning out in pain. The state the girl was in, would normally be considered a lost case, but not by the young man in front of him.

Who was starting to tire himself out, judging by the sweat on the teen's forehead.

From the spot where the Sannin was standing guard over his friend's charge, Jiraiya glanced towards the – now somewhat less, but still - tense and twitchy ninja that was standing guard over his daughter. The daughter that he slowly saw coming gradually back to a healthy and promising life.

If this Hari could heal his child that had been so far gone and hopeless, then it was no wonder that the Jounin – who had reluctantly pulled off his mask and told the medic that his name was Ken - had dared to face a Sannin.

Said Sannin was proud enough to say that anyone who recognized him would be _very_ careful around him – most of his allies not included of course. This meant that he had been slightly wary when the Jounin had stood in front of him in such a determined manner.

It had screamed of a suicide mission and those often caused enormous damage.

Why had Hari decided to help him though? He had seen the panic in the teenager's eyes for a moment. Jiraiya could have taken care of the ninja within a few seconds and yet the damn medic had stubbornly gone along with the man's pleas.

No, it wasn't because of the threat that Ken had posed. It was something else that the medic had seen in the man's eyes. Pondering absently about the mystery that was 'Healer Hari' – that had quite a nice ring to it - Jiraiya glanced at the two ninja who had been ordered to give the pair some space.

There was another ninja, Ryuo, standing right next to the man – a Chuunin level, Jiraiya had decided - a hand on his shoulder in a silent act of support. The Sannin had narrowed his eyes at the name, as it made him suspicious that the ninja originated from Amegakure, from Rain. It was one of the most common names in that region.

"Water." Hari spoke up out of nowhere.

The father of the child moved immediately, causing the Sannin to twitch ever so slightly at the sudden movement. He forced his muscles to relax when the ninja didn't move towards the medic, but instead darted away to get some water. He carefully tracked the ninja's chakra signature as he kept an eye on the ninja's friend who switched uncomfortably when he noted that the Sannin's gaze was locked on him.

At least the kidnapper's friend seemed to have better survival instincts than his desperate friend.

Just to mess with the man and because Jiraiya felt irritated by the current situation, he narrowed his eyes visibly in suspicion. The Sannin couldn't help but be amused by the twitch that the ninja was unable to repress.

Letting his smirk slip through, he glanced back at his current charge, ignoring the annoyed spasm of the ninja's eyebrow.

The moment that the Ken's chakra signature let him know that he had returned, Jiraiya immediately held up his hand as the ninja appeared on the ground with the water in hand. Grudgingly, the ninja abided by his rules and handed over the bucket with water. Jiraiya made sure to tap the deaf medic on the shoulder to alert him. Hari didn't even question him as he held out his hand.

The toad-summoned watched with interest when Hari placed his hands in the water, cupping some in his hand and carefully lifted the girl's head to seep it into her mouth. The father couldn't keep himself from helping, which he did very slowly in order not to provoke the now tense Jiraiya.

Had Hari been more aware of what was going on around him, he would have concluded that these suspicious-ninja-affairs were very bothersome.

Luckily, Hari wasn't area and seemed to accept the help without any difficulty. When he was done, he waved the man off without even looking at him.

It was the disgruntled expression on Ken's half-hidden face that had made it up for the stupid action of letting the ninja get close.

The ninja waited for one more half an hour before the medic tiredly leaned back and swiped at his sweaty forehead. "She's alright." He said, moving his hand to show that the father could approach the girl.

The ninja didn't need to be said twice and practically rushed towards his daughter, before cradling her in his arms.

The medic had seen this coming and put some distance between him and the girl.

"She should wake up in a couple of days. Let her rest, but after she wakes up for the first time, make sure that she wakes about every eight hours. She should drink a lot of water. She should slowly start to eat food. Try to avoid things with too much fat. Try to start with soup. Keep her warm and she should be alright in a maximum of two months. Try to keep her home for at least one month though. Her immune system has taken a huge blow, so be careful." Hari rambled off the instructions and gave some more details, eventually telling Ken's friend instead of Ken, seeing as the latter was too relieved to actually listen to him.

Hari let out a sigh of relief as he allowed his focus to slip.

Brushing off his trousers, the young man pushed himself off his feet and wobbled momentarily in a disorientated manner, giving the impression as if he was going to fall.

Jiraiya saw the movement coming before it happened. Before the medic realized what was going on, Jiraiya had picked him up and drew him away from the ninja. The white-haired man momentarily wondered why the medic was suddenly so tense in his arms, almost as if he had to keep himself from lashing out.

"Don't do that." The medic whispered after a while, his eyes wide while putting his hand on his heart, which was beating pretty quickly.

Jiraiya remained silent, half-ignoring the complaining medic and was too busy glaring at the ninja who had stilled –defensively – almost instantly.

"I apologize. I didn't mean to…"

"Save it." The Sannin spoke up. "You are lucky that you got your daughter back to health after having gone through such means. Had it been anyone else, you would probably have been dead."

"Leave it Jiraiya-san. Let me go." Hari cut in.

"I realize that. I did not mean to kidnap him like that. I was going to ask, but he woke up…"The man trailed off, not caring to explain that he had panicked.

Either going unnoticed or being ignored, Hari blinked slowly, noticing that he started to fall asleep. "Jiraiya-san, let me go." He said, pushing against the hold.

Jiraiya sighed, ignoring the faint struggling. He knew it wasn't very rare for ninja to act like Ken had. It was something that could happen to ninja once in a while, especially to desperate ones. "Well, just remember how..."

He was cut off when a hand slapped on his mouth.

"Let. Me. Go." The medic grumbled.

Blinking down, Jiraiya followed the wizard's order. He reluctantly gave back the weapon pouch that he had confined, even though he did so without the weapons. Ken didn't even mention the missing weapons and accepted it silently. He most likely took it for granted that he wouldn't get his weapons back.

He didn't care either. Weapons could be easily replaced, but the girl that he embraced in his arms couldn't.

He bowed to the medic in front of him.

"I'm in your debt." He muttered.

For some reason, the medic's expression turned into a disgruntled and possibly even a guilty one.

"No need for that." Hari muttered, waving him away. "I'm glad I could help out."

"No." Both Jiraiya and Ken said at the same time, causing them to look at each other.

"Look brat, it is clear that you nearly don't know anything about ninja. We ninja might be known for breaking rules and being all nasty, but a _debt_ is different. A debt is not something that you can wave away so easily. It is disrespectful."

A pair of green eyes widened. "No, that is not what I meant Ken-san. I don't mean to disrespect. I simply have bad experiences with debts in general."

Ken's eyes narrowed after hearing that. "I will not break mine."

He was more honorable than that.

"That's not what I meant." Hari sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He was too tired to argue about this.

There was a slight pause as the ninja threw something at the Sannin, who caught it easily.

The medic startled slightly as Jiraiya dangled the object in front of his face. Ken continued as soon as Hari took it. "Take this. If you ever are in need of information or help, show this in a village close to the southern border of…" He glanced at Jiraiya with some hesitation.

"Amegakure" The Sannin suggested with a knowing look, which earned Ken a glare from Ryuo.

"I told you he would find out."

"He could have followed us anyway. We would have never known." Ken waved away defensively, though he did pull his daughter towards him in a protective gesture as he glared warningly at the white-haired ninja.

"I'm not planning on it. I need to make sure this brat gets some proper protection… and education." The Sannin waved the suspicion off, though Hari didn't seem as happy with it.

"What do you mean _education_?" The medic protested. "Wait, what did you- _protection?"_ It sounded like it was one of the most ridiculous things that Jiraiya could have said, in Hari's opinion at least.

Ken decided to cut in before they lost track of the matter at hand. "Anyway, if you ever need any help, go to a village close to the border of Amegakure and you should be able to get some directions. Avoid people with star tattoos on their arms though." He ended with a warning.

For some reason that Jiraiya couldn't understand, Hari actually snorted at the tattoo statement.

"Sure, don't worry about it." Hari said, studying the small pendent. It was actually a coin, engraved with complicated zigzagging and swirling lines that reminded Hari of a chaotic rainstorm.

The medic bowed politely. "Thank you."

The two ninja bowed one more time and were about to leave when Hari stopped them one last time.

"Wait! May.. may I know her name?" He asked. He liked to be able to give a name to a patients face.

Ken turned around, his eyes meeting the medic's and smiled as he told him. "Yuki."

"Yuki." Hari repeated, nodding. "Good luck."

With that last sentence, they were gone.

The Sannin sighed in relief. He turned his head to glare at the medic who had proved to be so much trouble already, just so he could berate him on how stupid his actions had been.

He never got the change though, as Hari decided that his job was finally done and started to sway on his feet.

Catching the teen as he slowly seemed to lose conscious, the Sannin couldn't help but shake his head.

"For all your skills, you are one stupid and dumb brat."

~Harry~

"_Master of Death…."_

"…_the invisibility cloak"_

"_The resurrection stone is able to…"_

"_…Elder Wand is mine Potter."_

Odd flashes of memories haunted him as he slowly regained consciousness. He had once again seen that odd silver lining during this healing session, though it had been less pronounced compared to the man that he had healed about a week ago. The shiver too, had been less noticeable. He could somehow feel that was all still within the body, still connected.

'Hmmm….' Harry mentally groaned, not wanting to think about silly stuff like that when he could get some rest. 'How did I even get some sleep?'

The wizard couldn't even remember when he had fallen asleep. He had been tired yes, but he had not expected to collapse like that.

For the moment, the wizard was enjoying the sensation of tree hopping and the wind in his hair. He moved his face to a slightly more comfortable position on the man's back. He didn't want to wake up right now. He was tired and aching all over.

He picked up the soft vibration coming from the man, giving him the impression that the man was talking to him, but he ignored it. The wizard hadn't heard the words directed at him, having subconsciously shut down his hearing when he had fai- blacked out. He didn't do fainting.

Anyway, Harry didn't want to hear 'how dangerous his actions had been' and all that. They didn't know that he had been able to read Ken's intentions towards him.

The wizard was startled when the ninja carrying him suddenly stopped, crouched and dropped him on the ground, causing the wizard to sprawl out on the ground.

"What the…!" He protested as finally opened his eyes as he sat up.

The moment that he noticed the man's frowning face – and his very close proximity – he leaned back. The ninja was crouching down right next to him, hovering over in an intimidating manner, most likely trying to scare him a little by his threatening posture.

However, Harry was well familiar with the tactic, so he wasn't fazed by it. Though admittedly, it might be making him just a little uncomfortable. Before he could comment on his discomfort, the white-haired Sannin glared at him, causing him to shut up.

"You either are extremely brave and naïve or you are seriously stupid." The Sannin told him.

"What?" Harry needed a moment to start lip-reading and before he realized that he had been insulted. He glared back. "Why would you say that?" He struggled to keep his voice polite. He didn't want to insult the powerful ninja.

"You just accepted whatever the ninja said."

"So?" He asked, slightly confused as to why it bothered the man so much.

It would be difficult to tell him that he had been able to read the man's thoughts. Harry knew that Ken had simply been trying to get his help as soon as possible, seeing as time was running out for his daughter. Which, Harry concluded, had been more difficult when he found out that there was another ninja in the house.

Which meant, he had to break into his room while he was sleeping, seeing as there was that certain powerful ninja in the house might stop the medic from coming with him. Unfortunately for him, Harry had been awake and not at all reluctant to yell out, alerting the others in the process.

So Ken had automatically gone to plan B. Not a very good one, but nonetheless and understandable one.

But, as said before, Jiraiya didn't know that 'Hari' knew this.

"He is a _ninja,_ kid!"

"You are one too." Harry defended himself, winching at how childish it made him sound.

It seemed to make the man waver for a second though. "I'm not _just_ a ninja like that kid." He said very carefully.

Harry looked him in the eye after he said that. Narrowing his eyes just a little, he had to agree with the Sannin. This man was extremely powerful. He would be dead in a second if the man wanted to kill him. Plus, even as he looked him straight in the eye, the wizard could only gather surface emotions and mumbled thoughts. It was odd and kind of refreshing at the same time.

The man had probably a lot of chakra and experience if it even subconsciously protected his mindscape. He was curious if he would get in if he would actually put a lot of effort in it, but he was not going to risk it.

'Maybe he has done a lot of meditation?' Hari speculated. He had always wondered if there was any connection between the two.

As for what he was able to catch from the man… he was simply very frustrated, intrigued by Hari – that could prove to be troublesome – and pensive.

"Whatev…er… Sure." Harry quickly caught himself from being rude. "That girl needed my help so I helped out. Besides, I am able to make my own decisions Jiraiya-san."

It was a polite way of saying 'You are not my father, nor my boss, so don't tell me what to do' and by the look that Jiraiya gave him, he must have caught it.

"Noburu will most likely disagree with you there brat."

The wizards couldn't reply to that, knowing that he was telling the truth.

"Why do you care?"

"Look brat, you are special. Plus I'm Noburu's friend, who cares a lot about you, so it comes with the job." He gave the healer a pointed look. "Whether you want it or not."

Harry grimaced ever so slightly. Why did people tend to hover over him?

They continued to stare at each other – the medic trying not to glare at the ninja- for another minute before Jiraiya finally stopped hovering right next to Harry and sat down next to the teenager. The ninja frowned slightly as he looked at Harry's somewhat bloody hands, arms and forehead- from when he had wiped sweat off his forehead. Harry didn't even need to be told that he looked like a mess.

The ninja sighed and waved his hand. "Come here, I want to make sure that you are alright."

Harry actually snorted at that idea and actually moved a little further away. "I'm sorry, no offense, but I'm more than able to do that on my own."

"There are a few things that you can't do brat. Don't forget that." The man told him, holding up his hands as they glimmered with a blue aura.

'Chakra.' Harry realized as he stared at the man's hands, attention caught.

That was exactly the energy he could sometimes feel around him. It was the aura that always seemed to affect his magic – often negatively. The ninja never seemed as much affected by his spells as normal people. What was the difference? How did it mess with his magic?

"Brat." Harry was snapped out of his ponderings.

"No seriously it's…" He was cut off when Jiraiya grasped his light brown shirt at his shoulder and then literally pulled him closer to the ninja so that the Sannin could start his jutsu. The healer stubbornly fought the pull though, ignoring his collar uncomfortably pulling at his neck, while he seemed to surprise the man with his strength.

"You don't have to." Hari grounded, trying to be polite as he made sure not to show too much strength.

He _hated_ being pushed around like this.

"I wasn't asking brat." Another tug, but Harry found that it was more playful as if he was testing his strength.

'Testing my strength huh?'

Jiraiya was studying him. He narrowed his eyes and couldn't help but pull back slightly.

"Well I didn't give you permission." There was a slight growl to his tone.

"Well that's too bad." Another tug, one which would have been too strong for him.

Harry sighed, knowing very well that he couldn't go all 'Seirei' on the man. So, being very reluctant, he allowed himself to be pulled along –though he kept pretending that he was still fighting.

"I don't like you." He stated bluntly as the man forcefully sat him down on a large log and squatted down in front of him.

"Well, that's too bad."Jiraiya grinned at him, before he mumbled a jutsu under his breath, which caused both his hands to glow.

Tensing, the medic's breath hitched when – just as he had feared - he felt his magic react to the man's energy. It rose against the force, but didn't fight it. Instead, it seemed to act as an invisible and subtle barrier, while giving itself a boost in order to do so.

Feeling somewhat nervous, he relaxed when he met the man's eyes and couldn't find any emotion that would indicate that the man could actually sense the magic in him.

"Relax brat."

"I don't want t-"

"Stop acting like a brat."

"Then stop calling me one."

"I will stop calling you one, when you stop being one."

Harry snorted. "I don't believe you one bit."

Jiraiya smirked, but didn't answer and poked him in his chest instead. Reluctantly, Hari breathed out and let his shoulders relax.

The change was instant.

He refused to admit that he relaxed almost immediately.

Though he would be lying if he were to deny it.

Hari hummed as he closed his eyes, causing the Sannin in front of him to chuckle.

Accompanied by this odd 'rush', Hari was surprised by the quite pleasant feeling that he felt once he finally relaxed. He could feel the man's hands even though they weren't directly touching him. His eyes flickered for a moment to the ninja facing him and could sense the amusement there.

After a few minutes, Hari started to feel a bit like jelly. Was this how his patients felt?

They were silent for a while, Jiraiya focusing on his task while Harry secretly enjoyed the pleasant tingling sensation. He was however able to notice the frown that flashed across the man's face when his hand sneakily scanned the side of his neck. Another minute paused and Jiraiya broke the silence.

"For such a girly profession, you sure a strong brat."

No he didn't.

"What did you say?" Harry asked icily and somewhat drowsily, his previous polite demeanor fading away. "Healing is _not_ girly."

"Sure whatever, brat."

A rush of magic woke Hari up instantly as his temper – the one that he had thought to have under control ever since he had settled in the village – rose eagerly.

Jiraiya didn't really expect the reaction that followed from the polite medic. Caught off guard, it was only his ninja reflexes that allowed him to catch the fist aimed for his face –without breaking it - that might even have broken his nose.

Jiraiya chuckled. "You have a temper that reminds me of someone Hari-chan."

The wizard glared at him. "Just wait till I have broken that nose of yours." He growled, before he lunged at the laughing ninja.

"Really? 'Cause you know, when I said that your temper reminds me of someone, I'm actually referring to a woman."

~Later~

Harry groaned out. Had he fallen asleep again?

He rolled over on the sleeping bag that he lied on, not really noticing the sounds that he made as he moved. Frowning in confusion – when had he ever owned a sleeping bag like that – he became more aware of his current situation.

His eyes snapped open as he flew up into a sitting position when he realized what had happened. "You knocked me out!"

Harry's eyes widened when he heard his own voice very clearly and _far_ too loudly – painfully so.

"What? How in the…" He started, before he suddenly became very quiet. He slowly reached for his ears, trying to find whether something was different about them.

The spell was gone!

Everything was so loud and clear. It was like he had been wearing ear plugs all this time. His eyes widened in disbelief. It felt so good to finally hear so well. On the other side, he was sure that he was slowly falling into shock. All the simple sounds that he heard – that usually smothered or mumbled together – were suddenly clear.

It was overwhelming.

Eyes wide, Harry hummed to himself, trying to get a grasp of how loud he was being.

He was interrupted with a much louder voice. "Indeed Brat. Now just calm down, brat. You and I still have a lot to talk about and…"

"Shhh!" Harry hushed him halfway as the wizard felt his ears protesting in pain and clasped his ears over them.

The wizard turned into the direction in which the voice came from and spotted Jiraiya sitting right next to him next to a camp fire.

It was more difficult than it was being said, which Harry made clear by giving him a glare. "How did you do that?" He whispered in surprise, trying to be gentle on his currently very sensitive hearing.

The Hermit frowned for a moment, but copied the wizard's actions and whispered as well.

"I had a teammate who was a healer herself. I couldn't get away from her without learning a couple of tricks. "A slightly leering grin appeared on the man's face when he most likely went in memory lane.

Harry didn't want to know what he was thinking about.

At the pointed look that Harry send him, Jiraiya turned serious once again. "I finished the scan and found an odd aura in your ears. Oddly enough, you don't have even a drop more chakra than a citizen, so that couldn't have been it. Something else. Anyway, I simply pushed a little bit of chakra with a light healing jutsu and suddenly something seemed to pop."

The wizard shook his head in surprise. 'So it had worn off enough for chakra to disable it completely? But then why didn't it do so before?'

Was it because he had been knocked out?

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. _Why_ had that damn ninja knocked him out?

Hari was literally and loudly snapped of his thoughts by the Sannin, who was staring at him. "You do not seem to be as astonished as I would have expected someone to be." He commented, though it sounded very much like voicing a suspicion.

He explained further as Harry blinked at him in innocent confusion. "You are not reacting in shock like I might have expected, you must not have been always deaf."

Harry had to force himself to react calmly. "I have only been deaf for a couple of years. I was unable to fix it."

"Really? Then why did you have to learn the language again?"

Harry shrugged.

"I was taught a different language besides this one. I wasn't proficient with this one… well at all." Harry explained, deciding that it would be better to go with the truth. The ninja seemed someone who would have a lot of resources and it was not like he hadn't told Taiki and Noburu once – it hadn't taken him long enough to mess up with muttering to himself in English in their presence.

Which had of course raised question of where he came from, to which he had replied that he came from England and that he had absolutely no clue how he came here – which was completely true.

They had reacted surprisingly calm, which in turn had calmed Hari slightly. He could trust his two best friend… from this world at least.

Jiraiya seemed skeptical with his 'excuse' though. It was somewhat amusing to see that telling the truth wasn't even good enough.

"Whatever Kid. What happened with your ears?"

"It was an accident with my blood. My ears had started to bleed and…" The wizard waved his hand in a dismissive matter. "I'm not really sure myself. It just happened."

Harry hoped he was convincing enough, though on second thought, didn't really care whether the Sannin was satisfied with it or not.

The Sannin studied at him for a few seconds and hummed. "Well, whatever happened, it seems that my efforts have saved you a lot of problems."

'No way that I'm going to thank him after he knocked me out, probably trying to study me and then calling me girly.' Harry thought stubbornly.

"You just wanted more information didn't you? You knocked me out on purpose." Harry accused, rubbing his ear in disbelief.

Jiraiya faked an expression of being wounded. "I would never give in to my curiosity. I was merely concerned."

Harry shook his head in disbelief.

"No thank you? Tch, no respect today." The ninja complained.

"I have not forgotten that you knocked me out and using me like a lab rat." Harry reminded him.

Hari was surprised that the Sannin actually flinched at that statement, before quickly brushing it off.

Hari glowered at him.

"You were quite angry with me for calling healing a girly profession." The Sannin grinned at the teenager, not seeming to be angry for his reaction at all. "Plus you were about to collapse any minute, so I saved both of us a little time." He continued as he was scribbling something down on a scroll.

"Well, I'm not going to say sorry until you apologise!" The wizard hissed to the ninja, now even more annoyed.

Jiraiya huffed. "You wish, brat."

"You started by calling me girly."

Jiraiya snorted. "I didn't say anything of that sort kiddo. You are everything but a girl and don't even doubt my opinion. Trust me, I know women." He said, finishing with the familiar leer that Harry had seen before when he had spoken about this 'Tsunade-hime'.

"Healing is not a girly profession." Harry still objected, not seeming to care at all that he had just gotten his hearing back.

The ninja rolled his eyes.

"You healed me as well." Harry suddenly cut in, smirking. "That would be a very girly action of you."

Jiraiya blinked at the comment and puffed out his chest. "I am not womanly at all. I have met enough women to confirm it." Harry was slightly confused why he winced at his last comment.

Harry snorted. "Healing is a profession done by both men and women. So according to you ',y girly healing' is excused by a perfectly normal profession. You don't have that excuse." He argued, as Jiraiya gave him the lunch that he had warmed up.

They continued arguing for a while, even as Jiraiya carried Harry back to the village. The wizard might not have completely noticed it, but Harry started to let his guard down. The teenager didn't really realise that he was slowly but surely starting to become more comfortable around the man's powerful presence, but Jiraiya surely did.

'Who the hell is this kid?'

~Back at the Village~

The moment they had come back into the village, Harry had been welcomed back with open arms. In the couple of hours that he had been gone, nearly everyone had been updated on the situation. It was after all, just a village. This meant a lot of greetings and pats on the back when he got back and people urging him to give them a quick summary of what happened.

People were openly relieved that he was alright, not to mention ecstatic that he was able to hear again. Nearly everyone wanted to let him know 'what they sounded like', even though Harry secretly already knew.

Noburu and Taiki were especially thrilled that his hearing came back and made sure to thank Jiraiya.

Who still had refused to apologise, much to Hari's annoyance.

Taiki quickly fetched him some light green light-weight ear mufflers that vaguely reminded Harry of a headphones.

"Green?" He asked in an amused whisper, to which Taiki had just shrugged his shoulders. "We use them with training, but I'm sure I can fetch some new ones. Plus they are more comfortable than earplugs."

"Thanks Taiki." He said, patting his friend on the back, earning a grin.

Harry, no matter how tired he was, could easily say that he was very happy that evening. He had healed a little girl. His other patient was nearly ready to go come. The people still loved him, Taiki hadn't killed him for scaring him like that and he had his hearing back.

The wizard might have been lying to them all this time about not actually being deaf, but at least he didn't have to pretend anymore. A weight had fallen of his shoulder and the normally calm healer was practically beaming that afternoon.

Unknown to Harry, this was exactly why the two elder man were pretty reluctant to call him to have a very dreaded talk. They made sure that Taiki was informed – which was pretty much an explosion on its own. This way, Hari could have someone at his side to calm him down.

Being prepared, Noburu finally asked Harry to join them for dinner, having specially made his favorite chicken-noodle-soup recipe.

As soon as they were finished eating, it took only a few minutes before the weight that had fallen off the young man's shoulders returned twice-fold.

~Noburu~

"No."

Plain refusal.

Noburu sighed. He had feared that it would come to this. He glanced at Taiki, who immediately came to visit as soon as he had heard the news. The rest of the people had been send away, though there were enough rumors –and agreements – about the medic having to leave for safety purposes.

Not only for him, but also for the village.

"Hari, please listen to…"

"This is my _home, _Noburu." The young man cried out – sounding practically desperate. Noburu had always known that having a home was very important to the teenager. Hell, the first healing session with Ume had made it pretty clear how much a home meant to the healer.

Now, after he had finally found a place to call his own, he was forced to leave.

The ninja next to him was studying the medic's every reaction carefully.

Taiki quietly put a hand on the teen's shoulder, to calm him down. Hari glared at him for a moment, which made the old man wonder if he would shake it off, but he didn't.

"I _know,_ Hari." Noburu said, for once not hiding just how hopeless he felt, as he moved his hand through his grey fuzzy hair.

"But we cannot afford – as much as we want to Hari – to keep such a high-level ninja here to guard you." He tried to explain.

"What if I guard him?" Taiki tried, though he seemed pretty sure that the idea wouldn't be accepted.

"I have money!" The teenager objected at the same time.

"No Taiki." Noburu sighed.

"Brat." Jiraiya cut in, actually earning a glare from the teenager.

"No! You…"He pointed at the ninja. "You are the reason why he is bringing this up right? That ninja was not here to harm me or the village! He was there to…"

"Brat."

"…get his daughter some help. That does not mean that…"

"Brat." The tone sound more dangerous this time, but the medic was too upset to listen to him.

Noburu could see that Taiki was eying the ninja warily. The swordfighter wondered what would happen if the ninja were to lose his cool. His mother had told him more than enough stories about ninja and while nearly all of them were all in favor of them, she had made it very clear that they could be dangerous – his encounter with a ninja on his own had proved that.

"Hari." Noburu tried.

"…the village is going to be under attack or something. I'm not going to refuse my help to anyone if they nee…"

"Brat. Shut. Up." Jiraiya spoke up, cutting him off effectively this time.

"Your talents are not going by unnoticed." He warned him.

It was a very simple sentence, but it seemed to shake up the medic more than the kidnapping that had happened the night before. Hari swallowed with some difficulty, his mouth dry.

"Will they come to hunt me down then?" He dared to question.

The ninja looked him dead in the eye.

"Yes."

"You are sure?"

"Yes."

"Completely?"

"Hundred percent." The man told the teen, completely serious and their eyes met.

That shut the teenager up for a moment. Putting his elbows on the table, the medic hid his face in them, his fingers crawling in his hair. He wasn't actually crying, but his body language told him more than crying would have.

"This village is all that I have." The teenager whispered hoarsely.

He suddenly whipped his head up, directing his question once again. "What if I can get someone strong enough to guard me and the village?" There was a desperate tone to his question.

It made Noburu wonder if his unofficial charge had someone in mind.

"I'm not sure whether that will be enough. If you become famous enough, people will try to 'recruit' you for their own purposes, willingly or otherwise." Jiraiya said with a sigh.

"But if I get someone strong enough?"

"You might be able to stay here a while longer, but that doesn't meant that you won't pose as a threat for the village. Leverage might be old school, but it is still very effective. Especially with your hero-complex."

"I don't have a he-" Hari tried, but the looks that he received made him unable to finish the sentence.

Leverage huh? Threatening his village most likely.

For the others, it was clear that Hari was very – very – conflicted by the idea. Noburu's eyes widened in surprise when the teenager crossed his arms on the table and leaned his chin on them, eyes unfocused.

He had never seen Hari so helpless before.

'Bloody hell.' Ron's voice echoed in the back of Hari's mind. Hermione scolding him seconds later for his recklessness. Other short memories resurfaced and his chest suddenly felt heavy.

Why did him trying to help people always end up with such a mess?

"I can never get away from this curse can't I?" The healer mumbled under his breath, before he started to speak in that unknown language of his. The elder man saw Jiraiya glance at him in a rather surprised manner. He glanced at Taiki, who acted like it was pretty normal and then to Noburu.

"He really speaks another language?" The ninja asked him in a near silent whisper and Noburu nodded. The teenager usually did that when he was deeply in thought. They had no idea where it came from, as Hari didn't want to talk about it, but they didn't really care.

He was one of them.

"You know Hari…" Noburu hesitated. "Son."

Hari's head shot up at the endearment. It is one that he very rarely used, especially in the presence of others.

"You don't have to leave us forever. You can visit from time to time, but we would prefer to make sure that you have enough protection."

Hari nodded reluctantly, but his eyes had once again turned pensive.

"Seirei." The teenager muttered under his breath – realizing too late how loudly he had spoken - to which Noburu and the rest froze.

There was a silence as they all stared at the healer.

"Wait." Taiki suddenly spoke up. "You want to ask _Seirei_ to guard you?"

Hari suddenly shifted uncomfortably. "Yes?"

"How will you ever find him?" Taiki questioned.

"How do you know you can trust him?" Jiraiya asked him pointedly at the same time.

The teenager twitched at the questions but didn't answer. He hadn't really meant to state it out loud like that, but it had been a thought. Noburu sighed, glanced at Jiraiya and startled slightly when he saw the concentration that was visible on the man's face.

Oh no.

"Do you know him?" The Sannin asked him carefully.

"N-"

"Don't even dare to lie to me brat." The ninja bluntly stated – but the warning was there.

As a moment of silence stretched, Hari realized that the ninja had driven him in a corner. His pause had already been more than enough prove on its own.

Damn ninja.

"I might have healed him before." The medic admitted slowly with a sigh of defeat, scratching his neck in discomfort.

Taiki's head snapped towards his friend. "What? But you said tha…"

"I _know _Taiki."

"Why would you lie?" The teenager seemed to be surprised by this revelation.

"He wanted me to keep silent about it. He had some very good reasons." The wizard defended himself.

"What?" Both Taiki and Jiraiya exclaimed.

"Well, it wasn't like I was actually lying to you. I'm sorry alright?" He tried, clearly feeling like he was being driven into a corner.

"Kid" Noburu watched as his old friend stood up this time and leaned forward as he pointed at the healer. "You seriously have to stop healing everyone that comes knocking at your door."

"Ha! Seirei is totally harmless! He will never hurt me!" The healer protested, seeming _very_ confident on the matter.

"That doesn't mean anything!"

Noburu sighed as he watched two of his precious people bicker with each other, moving his chair back he walked toward the cabinet in the room and pulled out a familiar bottle of sake.

"…it is not like I am not going to heal people without some indication of what they want from me!"

Noburu picked up the bottles that were placed right next to it and put it down on the table.

"…reckless brat!"

Noburu tried not to pay attention to the arguments being thrown back and forth. Instead, he shot the frowning Taiki a humorless smile. The teenager seemed to be pretty shocked that the medic had kept something like that from him. Noburu started and nearly dropped his cup when he suddenly saw Jiraiya disappear from where he stood.

"Jiraiya!"

But the Sannin was already standing right behind the medic. He didn't have any kunai in his hands, but the empty hand near the medic's neck was a clear message on its own.

"Do not trust ninja without a reason, gaki." The ninja whispered to the medic, whose head snapped up to look at him.

The healer glared heatedly at the ninja, leaning away from the man's hand poking his neck  
as he did.

"I do not want this." He growled out, vivid green eyes flashing.

"Hari." Taiki got the teenager's attention. He still seemed slightly disgruntled from having been lied to, but that didn't keep him from helping out his friend.

_"_Please_."_

He swallowed. "Konoha is not that bad. I have always wanted to go once, my father…" He stopped and sighed, before looking his friend in the eye.

"_Please._"

The two looked at each other for a long time and Hari's eyes softened ever so slightly, but the glare was still there.

"I will drag you along with the villagers' permission if I have to." Jiraiya warned the teenager.

Noburu's stomach twisted when he saw the frustrated flash in the healer's eyes return.

There was a long pause as Hari looked at all of them for a while and then suddenly angrily shoved his chair away from the table. It was only because Taiki caught it that prevented it from falling down the floor.

"_Fine_."

With that, the village's beloved medic stormed out of the room, Taiki not far behind him.

"Hari! Wait! I…" The house rattled at the door slammed shut behind them.

Noburu sighed. He felt a headache starting to form already. "Somehow…"

"I will have to test Seirei's strength." Jiraiya spoke up.

"What?"

"I will have to see how powerful this Seirei really is." Jiraiya repeated, a twinkle forming in his eyes. "If he is actually as strong as the people say, then he might be able to protect the healer and if he forms an alliance with Hari…"

"…he will be of more use for Konoha." Noburu finished for him. "I don't like it, but fine. It might work. You will have to find him first though. He is quite slippery and it is not the first time that Seirei has disappeared off the radar for a longer period of time."

"Well, as long as Hari is in Konoha, it wouldn't be a problem. I will just have to find him while he is safe."

The grey-haired man offered his friend a cup of sake, which was genuinely accepted. They both pulled their head back and gulped it down in one go. There was a soft 'thunk' as their cups hit the table at the same time.

"Well that actually didn't go as badly as I had thought." The Sannin offered.

Noburu shot him a glare as he filled another cup for them.

"You know, the punk actually managed to hit me in the face. I'm glad that he seemed to have forgotten." The ninja shared, rubbing his cheek.

"You must have earned it." The other man replied dryly.

"Really, I just mentioned that healing is considered to be a pretty girly occupation."

"Well there you have it." Noburu nodded, as if stating the obvious and then tipped back his head to empty another cup.

This was going to be a long evening.

~Taiki~

Both of them were unaware that Hari and Taiki were actually listening just beyond the door. Looking at each other, the medic shook his head, even though Taiki looked hopeful as they heard about Jiraiya's plans on sparring with Seirei. The medic sighed and they walked away from Noburu's house.

"He's not powerful enough." The medic told Taiki who glared at him.

"I have seen him fight." He told him.

"I have seen him wounded." The medic shot back. "He is not some superhuman."

The two glared at each other for a moment, before Taiki sighed.

"I'm still disappointed that you didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry. You know that I…" Hari started, clearly not wanting to make his friend angry but obviously very aggravated with the current situation.

"I know, I know." Taiki waved the explanation away. He knew that the medic had more than enough secrets that he kept hidden, even though said medic might not be fully aware that he knew.

"I just don't want you to leave Hari. You are like a brother to me." He said quietly as both of them arrived at the shed.

His brother in all-but-blood glanced over at him and smiled at him. Despite the situation it was a real smile.

"Thanks Taiki. Me too."

It earned a smile from the swordfighter. Just that agreement alone, made Taiki forgive him for all the secrets that he hid from him.

"Want to watch the sunset?" The swordfighter asked, pointing at the roof.

"Yeah, I would like that."

With that the two young men climbed on the pointed roof, which wasn't too steep to securely lie on. Neither of them spoke for a long while, but simply stared at the colorful sky that eventually turned dark. It was a clear sky, allowing them to have a good view on the stars. They eventually spoke about the village rumors, about Ume – the date had gone well but Taiki admitted that something had been missing.

"You kissed her, didn't you?" Harry teased, while still looking at the sky.

It was strangely relaxing not to have to turn towards Taiki to see what he was saying, though it took a while for him to stop doing it.

"Of course." Taiki proudly said. "She said I was quite a good kisser." He smugly added.

"Don't get too full of yourself."

"You are just jealous." Taiki teased.

Hari rolled his eyes and swatted him on the head, unable to prevent himself from thinking back to the girl that had kissed ages ago. Never would he be able to do so again…

"So you are going to take her on another date?" The wizard asked, trying to keep away of those depressing thoughts.

The swordfighter actually hesitated. "Maybe."

He was glad that his friend didn't prod any further, but respected the wordless request.

After a long silence, Harry pointed at the brightest star in the sky. "Did you know that star…" He pointed at a bright star twinkling above them. "…is the brightest star in the sky?"

Taiki blinked at the random – and quite obvious observation – but played along.

"Yeah... so?" He inquired, looking at his friend to try and figure out whether he was joking or not.

By the smile that appeared on Hari's face, Taiki decided that he wasn't. Hari turned his hand to look at him and moved his arm once more behind his neck.

"It's called _Sirius_."

'He just gave me the name in his own language?' Taiki realized, as he tried to pronounce the odd word. "Si-ri-us."

Hari smiled at him. "Yeah, seriously." A dry chuckle followed.

The brown-haired man frowned and studied the star more closely this time, trying to figure out why it was so important to his friend.

"You know, that star can be used for navigating. So you will always be able to find your way back to the village." Taiki pondered and blinked when Hari started snickering loudly.

"You're right." He agreed, still laughing.

Taiki just shook his head, having absolutely no clue what could have made his friend so happy, but decided that it didn't matter.

Both of them knew that – as much as they hated it – Hari would have to leave for Konoha, but for now, they would just enjoy peaceful moment that they had together.

"So, did you seriously punch the ninja in the face?"

Harry smirked.

**~End of Part 1~**

Next chapter Hari will go to Konoha. I might use some timeskips this time, because I don't want to go through another 'settling in' period again. The most important moments will be shown and the rest might be commented on.

Also, did any of you have problems with signing in as well? That's when you realise how much you depend on internet...

Anyway I hope to hear from you soon again! Seriously, your support means a lot to me.

~Dreamyin


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary:** Harry Potter's luck can't give the wizard a break. In Voldemort's desperate and last attempt to kill Harry in the Final Battle, Harry is whisked away to a new world. Determined not to let himself be brought down, he thrives to become stronger and to find a new place to call home. However, how long it will take for his strange abilities to be noticed? Follow Harry as he deals with the difficulties that are thrown his way in this new life as he creates a new hidden identity for himself.

**Beta**: Thank you Iriomote Yamaneko Nokomis for offering!

Hello hello! I must be surprising a couple of you simply with the fact that I'm updating this. After a short (cough year right cough) break I practically pushed myself to writing this, no matter that I have a very tough exam in two days. How foolish I am... You must be glad.

Seeing as many of you liked the interaction between Jiraiya and Hari, I decided to give you a little extra. Also, many people wer curious on the trip to Konoha so I just decided to put it in.

So, there you go! Part 2!

Start of part 2!

**Chapter 10: Making Preparations**

~ About three days later ~

The whole village was silently stunned by the sudden change of attitude of their precious healer. Of course, Hari was still as pleasant to them as he always was. The young man greeted them warmly as he always had done before. He even followed pretty much the same routine that they had always seen him do.

Yet, the moment that he was not being distracted by something - anything - his face would twist to a brooding one.

Which would be a cue for his new shadow – Taiki – to provoke him into another activity or conversation.

Still, even the energetic Taiki was eventually asked to give him some alone time.

"I might love you like a brother Taiki, but it's not like I'm dying. Give me at least a few hours of peace." The medic had stated with a sad smile and Taiki had sighed in defeat and stalked off.

Not that the swordfighter hadn't expected this reaction eventually. The medic liked to have his personal space. So the swordfighter finally returned to training. Much to the relief of his Uncle. Even being as hardened as the man was, he hadn't been able to get himself to order his nephew to stop bothering the medic.

Training would come later. The medic would be leaving soon and the fact was eating at his charge.

They had still spend a lot of time together, more than usual, but at least now people could spot the two boys without being near each other again.

Which gave Hari the opportunity to return to his brooding when he thought that no one was looking.

But one cannot underestimate the skills of surveillance that such a small community possessed when they all turned their attention to one person.

The villagers could understand his behaviour though and tried to show him extra affection just because.

Just like today.

~Harry~

Harry slowly took a deep breath to smell the forest and calmly moved over when Ume pointed at another plant and asked him a question.

"No unfortunately, but I think I heard someone tell me that it is great to use as a tea." Harry told her after recognising it.

The girl brightened and carefully plucked the plant.

Ume had dragged Harry along with their usually twice-a-month activity that they had dubbed 'herb hunting'. During which she enjoyed walking and jogging around while being taught to recognise different herbs that Harry had studied and they would discuss what they could do. While she could not make potions – seeing as an input of magic was necessary to make one - the properties of many plants still had many uses.

The medic couldn't help but smile as he watched the girl hop over a large log. He had never thought that her leg would have kept her from being so energetic.

"So what are you currently working on?" He dared to ask and the wizard smirked as he listened to her ramblings about a couple of harmless experiments that she was doing.

At least the village would still have one near-expert that they could rely on. And seeing as Ume's parents ran the village's small drug store, they would be fine medicament-wise.

Still, Harry couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility. He needed to _know_ when they needed him. He needed to be there.

Alright, fine! He might have bonded to this small place far too quickly, in what would soon be two years, for it to be considered healthy. Yet, he didn't care.

And fine, he might also 'suffer' from a hero-complex of some kind, but that acknowledgement made him only more determined to be there for them.

His eyes watched the familiar sight of the small village as they walked down the hill up north.

This was his home.

He walked her to the door of her house where they said goodbye. Harry was about to walk away when Uma called him.

"Hari, wait!" She called, still not used to the fact that he could hear her. Even with those – in her opinion – silly muffling headphone on.

Yet, the medic turned around and raised an eyebrow questioningly and smiled at her.

"Forgot to give your goodbye kiss?" Harry teasingly tapping his cheek as he walked back to her and turned his cheek to her.

Laughing, she shook her head and patted his cheek playfully before he retreated.

"No silly, I just wanted to give you this."

She held her fist, clearly having something in her hand. Hari couldn't help but feel somewhat curious and reached out.

"What is it?" She hesitated and grinned somewhat awkwardly.

Her closed hand touched his, but she didn't give it to him yet.

"Well, you have been a great friend and while you are not the most outgoing to show it, I know you care. I can't help but be grateful for everything you have done."

She gestured to her leg and Harry smiled awkwardly back. "That's really no pr-"

"No, it is." Ume insisted. "It means a lot to me, as did our little outings. I learned a lot from you and I will miss you." She stated bluntly.

Harry was once again reminded why he had come to like – in a protective brother-like way -the girl in front of him so much. Hermione had never been afraid to tell him what she had on her mind either.

Too bad that it never had been his best quality in situations like these.

"Well…" He started. "I'm just glad that I could help. You are a good friend Ume and you deserve it to be healthy." He was afraid that it sounded too mushy, but she simply grinned at him.

Then Ume seemed to remember her hand.

"Ah, right!" She didn't seem to be embarrassed at all to nearly hold hands like this either, Hari noted. 'So much like Hermione...' The thought repeated itself before he could help it.

"Hari..." The girl started and Harry made sure to pay attention to what she was going to tell him.

"It might be silly to believe in stuff like this but it always brought me a lot of luck; so I hope it will do the same for you. Seeing as we can't be there to keep an eye on you and to drag you home to get a good night of rest." She teased.

The girl finally handed the object over and as soon Harry held it, he knew what it was. He opened his hand and stared at the small coin with amazement. As soon as he spotted it, a memory resurfaced. That familiar feeling of a similar object burning in his pocket…

_Alerting_ him… Of course!

She had handed him a small bronze coin. It was light and sturdy but pretty plain otherwise. Yet it reminded him of the DA coins... Those that warned each other... How could he have forgotten?

For days he had been brooding in hope to come up with something so that they could alert him if they needed him and there it was! Ume watched with some nervousness as the medic stared rather blankly and wide-eyed at the coin, his expression frozen.

"I'm sorry, it seems silly now. If you don't like it..." She tried to gauge his thoughts.

That snapped Harry out of it.

"No no no! I love it. You just took me by surprise. _Thank you!"_ He grinned at her and she momentarily was taken aback by the amount of joy that his face seemed to radiate.

Sure Hari smiled often, but this was a full-force grin and those were special. She smiled as he hugged her fiercely for a moment.

"Thank you Ume-chan!"

"Y-your welcome." She said with a chuckle and watched him practically run home.

Well… he seemed happier with her gift than she had expected. With a satisfied smile she turned around and entered her home.

Then she frowned. She still needed to find Taiki so that they could have that talk of theirs.

At the other side of the village, said brown-haired young man felt a sense of foreboding come over him and he couldn't help but wonder what the hell had caused it.

At least, until his instincts and reflexed took over and he felt himself dodging to the side.

"Brat, don't get distracted like that! I could have taken out your eye without you noticing!"

Taiki mentally snorted. His uncle was always so subtle, but he shook off the thoughts nonetheless and readied himself for the next attack.

"I'm sorry, Uncle."

"Apologies don't get you anywhere. Show me!"

"Hai!"

~ Harry ~ That evening ~

Now that the idea was there…

It still needed to be worked out... which was the frustrating part.

The wizard had helped Hermione research them before - which had mainly consisted of simply keeping her company - and she had made it a point to teach him to make them so that they could make the whole batch together.

_'You could just as well help me Harry! It will be_ your_ club after all!'_

So he did know what he had to do, but yet that wouldn't work. The whole context was different. This world was different. The distance was different – probably _much_ greater than Hogwarts was. Then there was the need of magic to keep the runes running. Not to mention the magic to keep it activated.

Besides, what about the influence of chakra? How was he going to let someone else use magic?

Damn it.

Harry's head hit his desk with a loud '_thunk'_. The objects on the wooden surface quivered momentarily. With a tired sigh Harry turned his head to the side and stared at Ume's small coin in front of him. It shone in the light from the candle that stood in the corner of his writing table.

Harry was afraid that he didn't have enough time.

Even if he could get the warning system to work - which was still the question if he could - he still had to improve his transportation. He still hadn't managed to Apparate and was meanwhile pretty sure that the lack of magic on this 'earth' had to do with it.

Running, even at his speed, might take too long if it was urgent.

His eye shifted from the coin towards a familiar empty flask that stood in the windowsill, the warm glow of the candlelight caressing the glass.

He sighed wistfully as he looked at the bottle and then at the dark sky outside, small lights scattered across it as if it were a painting.

Harry was actually quite close to reaching his inner animagus. He knew it. He could sometimes feel it. That nagging urge that would haunt him, just as it was doing right now.

That need for freedom.

As he had expected, the little booklet had opened as soon as he had taken the potion and dropped some blood on the cover. In it, there was a guide to the steps that should help him connect with his inner animal – which involved a lot of meditation.

He was doing well, but it was a slow process.

With a sigh, he stood up, took the candle from the desk and put on a safe spot on the floor. He settled down behind it on a small rug placed there for this exact purpose. Crossing his legs, he put his hands entwined his fingers together and his thumbs touched.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

His process was slow because it was difficult for him to break through the awareness that he had seemed to be able to reach after a few weeks of practice.

The energy in this world was… captivating. He couldn't keep himself from studying it every time he entered this mindset. There was too much that he still didn't know.

His interest was piqued when he felt a… blob of chakra walk towards his shelter. It was clearly different than the sentient chakra that was, well everywhere.

That ninja… it was part of him. Just like magic was part of him. Yet, it felt different. It was as if Harry's energy was white, while his was blue.

Interesting. A short rapid knock forced him to acknowledge the presence outside his door.

The fact that the person hadn't barged in ruled out Taiki. Noburu didn't do sharp rapid knocking and Ume would simply keep knocking because she thought it would help.

Harry would have guessed that white-haired ninja by this way of eliminating other suspects, had he not been sure that it was the ninja. It was after all the man's signature that had been approaching him a few seconds before the knocking had started.

His concentration broken, Harry opened his eyes drowsily and climbed to his feet – careful to dodge the candle. Stretching, he crossed the room with a few steps and swiftly opened the door.

"Ninja-san" He plainly stated as he came face to face with Jiraiya.

"Is there anything you want?" He inquired, instead of using his usual "Can I help you?"

Jiraiya didn't mention anything, but the bemusement in the man's eyes told him enough.

"I want to discuss the plans. I will stay another three days before I have to leave."

"Oh, so now you decide to listen to my input?" Harry dryly asked as he walked away from the door, not even caring to invite him in.

Jiraiya stepped after him and seemed somewhat surprised by the rug and the candle – an obvious setup for mediation.

Harry grabbed a pillow from a closet and placed it on the other side of the candle for Jiraiya to take if he wanted to. He sat back polity on the other side, offering the most comfortable spot to the ninja.

He might be annoyed with the man, but he was still going to try to be polite.

The ninja regarded him for a while, taking in his ruffled appearance, those odd green sound mufflers on his head and finally his expression. He hummed and he settled down on the pillow and crossed his legs as well.

Harry had no clue what the hum had meant.

Instead, the medic was once again very aware of the height difference between them. That man was huge.

'And powerful… don't anger him.' His self-preservation warned, but he disregarded it a second later. He wasn't afraid of the man.

"Look brat, I know you are angry about this whole thing but-" Jiraiya started.

"Don't worry, I get why my presence might _eventually_ be considered a threat for my friends. At least when I wouldn't do or be able to do what they say." The medic stated with a dismissive wave of his hand.

He knew that he might be acting disrespectful towards the man, but he was tired and for the moment didn't care. Not that Jiraiya seemed to care about it a lot, especially between the two of them. Their bickering the other day had pretty much destroyed any polite attitude for each other.

"That doesn't mean that I'm not pissed though, but I will be able to accept it eventually. However, I _hate_ it when people start planning and experimenting-" He shot the man a pointed glare. "behind my back."

Planning... the word echoed in Harry's mind as he said it out loud.

Jiraiya watched as the teen's eye suddenly glanced towards the desk as if suddenly remembering something and the medic stood up.

Harry picked up the coin and put it in the small brown pouch that hung on a cord, before settling back down. He didn't want to forget to put it in.

From what Jiraiya noticed, he always carried that little pouch under his shirt. Precious objects maybe?

The wizard took a deep breath and looked him in the eye again. "Besides this, I _despise_ it when they pretend practically using someone as a lab rat is nothing special." He stated bluntly.

Harry could see that his comment had rubbed Jiraiya the wrong way.

The shinobi sighed. "Look brat..."

Hari tsked. "Save it. You would have done the same if you had the chance again"

Jiraiya tensed. How was he so good at reading him!? It frustrated him to no end but he couldn't help but admit that the tern was right.

The Sannin studied him again. Now near the candle light, the ninja could study him better than at the door. Though he had been watching the teen this afternoon as well.

The medic looked tired, nervous, moments of plain panic in those eyes when he thought that no one was watching. Hair even wilder than yesterday, sticking out in nearly every direction.

The ninja glanced at the papers on the desk, some files on different people. Some ingredient and herbs for those - what the people told him tasted horrible - brews of his probably.

The Sannin realised that he hadn't really given much thought to the medics perspective before.

"Look 'Hari'…" He slowly started.

The simple fact that man was using his name showed the medic that he was being serious.

"You are right about my decision. After all, it did heal your deafness."

Harry nodded easily.

"Still I would have at least tried to ask for permission this time." He said sincerely.

Harry regarded him. "Fine. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that you got rid of my ear problem, but your method rubbed me the wrong way. I might not have fully realised it and said much about it at the time, but it still did."

The Sannin nodded, somewhat surprised by how mature the medic was acting. He knew plenty of shinobi who acted like that at an even younger age, but after having bickered with the medic like a child – which had been pretty amusing – it made the Sannin realise that there was more to him than he had even considered before.

Maybe, the healer _did_ know what he was getting himself into.

"To make it fair. I want to study you as well." The wizard stated bluntly and smirked when Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.

"Tsk, I'm not planning anything. I'm just curious. I never healed ninja before. I'm not even sure if I can". Harry pondered out loud, leaning his chin on his fist.

Now that particular admittance peaked the older man's interest as well.

"What are the risks?" He carefully asked.

Harry shrugged. "What you did to me might have gone well, but it might as well have gone very wrong. Seeing as I'm not dead though, I'm pretty sure that you won't have any damage."

They regarded each other for a moment and Harry knew that he had won. The man was too interested and too intrigued himself to do anything else. Yet, there was that pensiveness in his eyes again that warned him that the wheels in the man's brain were spinning.

"Alright." Jiraiya conceded. "I apologise once more. I did not know enough about your… energy." Harry shrugged and didn't correct him. "- to know that it could have such catastrophic consequences. However, please don't think that I was not careful." He said formally.

"Apology accepted. I apologise for hitting you." It was an obvious lie that he didn't even try to cover up.

The built-up politeness between the two felt so odd for both parties that it was easily broken.

The medic smirked in amusement and Jiraiya snorted.

"Still I knew you wouldn't hurt me. Noburu would have skinned you alive and left the rest of the pieces to the village." Jiraiya chuckled in agreement. "It's just the knocking out part that annoyed me."

"I will keep it in mind."

"I will try to be more respectful if it bothers you so much." Harry eventually offered.

The Sannin waved it off. "No need. I prefer the honesty, instead of showing a polite mask. Damn masks. I get enough of that in my career."

The medic nodded easily and watched the light of the candle flicker.

"So… you came from _somewhere_ else before you settled here?"

"It is behind me." Harry told him, not in a defensive manner but it was more like a statement. "I will not discuss it."

"Anything I should be afraid of?" Jiraiya couldn't help but ask and the wizard shrugged again.

"I can do this as long as I can remember. I don't have any family. I can't ever get home. I am not a threat for anyone that doesn't pose one for the people I care about." He told him honestly.

'… or to those that are defenceless.' Mentally added, but kept himself from saying it at the last moment.

Jiraiya hummed at him again.

Deciding that their discussion was over, the medic stood up and moved to switch on the light. "Can you blow out the light?" He asked the man before he walked towards the second bedroom. The man simply licked his fingers and pinched the flame, smothering it instantly.

Harry rolled his eyes but didn't comment.

"Then, if you don't mind, I would like to see just how far my healing goes." He stated as he walked in.

"Fine, but you are not going to experiment on me if you don't mind."

Harry turned around with a frown when he saw Jiraiya followed him, opening the door as he went. He was about to protest when the Sannin cut him off.

"You can practice on him."

Harry realised that his expression must have been pretty astonished for the shinobi to laugh, but he couldn't help himself.

"Bloody hell." He muttered in English.

He had seen clones before, but this one simply _reeked_ of chakra.

"But how-" He started as he looked at the second Jiraiya that had walked into the small room.

The second Jiraiya waved at him. "I'm not the real one."

Harry glanced at the other one that was still laughing. Ah yes… he could sense something in the real shinobi that wasn't in the copy. A shiver went don't his back when he tried to focus on it.

"You don't know a lot about ninja do you Hari-kun?" Jiraiya pointed out with amusement.

More than he though, Harry thought mentally with a smirk, but didn't correct him.

"Just… whoever is going to be the guinea pig, please lie down on the bed and please remove your shirt."

For once, the Sannin held back the innuendo's he could easily come up with, and judging by the pointed look the the medic was shooting him, he knew exactly what he was thinking.

Harry rolled his eyes again and cleaned his hands as the clone settled down. Focusing, he stood next to the clone and easily fished a clean knife form a drawer and cut his hands.

"Isn't that dangerous when dealing with bloody wounds? It might be poisonous."

Harry shrugged, not feeling like sharing the fact that he had basilisk venom and phoenix tears in his blood, which seemed to have a protective effect on antigens entering his blood stream.

Though he couldn't deny that he had only considered this after he had started healing. Luckily it just proved not to be dangerous for him to do so, or he would have been screwed.

"It's fine." He answered instead and closed his eyes.

Charkra was interesting. He could practically feel the clone vibrating with it. It was completely made out of this energy, forming masses identical to the user.

In the end, it was all energy.

So why was it so different to his own?

Much to Harry's frustration, his magic seemed unable to stop the blood flow. The charka was too _dense_ – it was one of the few words that Hary could come up with - for his magic to fight.

Frowning, he shifted his stance, preparing himself to pull of an all-nighter if that was what it took to figure this out.

If they were really going to come after him, then he and Seirei needed to find a way to fight against this chakra.

"There is a chair in the corner. Jiraiya-san. Take a nap if you feel like it. This might take a while."

"Jiraiya is fine."

"Call me Hari then."

"Sure brat."

"Whatever old man."

~Next day ~

The wizard groggily opened his eyes and realised he had fallen asleep on the bed that was usually meant for his patients. The clone had disappeared and he vaguely remembered climbing on the bed to give in to his exhaustion.

Looking up, he saw the Sannin reading a scroll in the chair that he had assigned to him the night before.

"Morning."

"Morning brat. Not much luck, huh?"

Harry sighed and buried his head back in his arms, replying with a muffled. "No."

The old ninja hummed in thought. "It was odd. My skin tingled but I couldn't really feel anything inside of me."

"Huh? How do you know?"

The Sannin tapped his head. "A secret ninja thing brat. Forget about it."

The medic narrowed his eyes at the man. "Well then, I will just guess that part of your chakra found a way back to you and took it's experience along with it."

The ninja actually looked up and watched him with a frown.

"Are you a genius in hiding or something?" He asked, to which Harry snorted in reply.

"Still, what is your idea behind it?" The Sannin pushed when the medic didn't elaborate.

"Energy. It's all energy." The medic replied vaguely, slipped off the bed and stretched.

That didn't seem much like an answer, but the Sannin didn't comment on it.

Harry sniffed his shirt and grimaced. "I'm taking a shower. Don't start snuffing around my stuff. I will know."

"Don't worry about it brat, I already did when you were knocked out."

Exasperated, Harry pinched his nose and was about to slip out when the Sannin called out to him.

"You are leaving in a couple of days."

The medic froze and closed his eyes.

"I want at least two weeks." He said, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder. The wheels in his head were spinning.

"I want to check up on all villagers one last time before I go. I have to brew a few more potions to last at least until I can visit again."

'I have to get those damn coins to work.' Harry mentally added.

"And I would like to spend some time while you are here to figure out if I would be able to heal ninja."

Jiraiya couldn't really argue with his last reason. Having another medic – even if he was no ninja – in Konoha was always welcome. Besides, this Harry was special. There was something about him that Jiraiya couldn't put his finger on, but his instincts would not let him slip from his grasp.

Who knew, he might save his life sometime.

He didn't share any of these thoughts though and instead regarded the medic for a moment.

"Sure, I will help you out the next few days." He conceded as if he was only doing Hari a favour, causing the medic's eye to twitch and glare at him.

Jiraiya ignored it.

"The shinobi will watch over you in the meantime that he is here. It will leave you unguarded for a few days but I will be in the neighbourhood. If anything happens, fire this off." The man pulled out something familiar to firework and put it on the table right next to him. "I will leave in a couple of days."

Harry hummed in acknowledgement and left the room.

Two weeks.

He had a lot to do.

~ Two nights later ~

The few days that the Sannin had stayed were mostly used to experiment with his healing once the sun had set. It had taken two full days before Harry had a breakthrough and he had practically begged Jiraiya to let him heal a small cut on his arm to confirm his theory.

The Sannin had watched with surprise as the gash had healed within seconds. He barely felt anything of the process...

Harry had laughed gleefully and they had continued to practice a little bit more. Though Harry had refused to let the Sannin maim himself beyond a few cuts, which the man had been well-prepared to do, much to Harry's dislike.

Once the medic had realised what to do, it suddenly seemed so simple. Sure it took more effort than healing civilians, but the chakra oddly enough gave him a boost as well.

'If you can't work against it, work along with it. Guide it and show it what needs to be done.' Harry thought, feeling like it was one of those philosophical thought.

He didn't really know where it came from.

Maybe Dumbledore had said something like that before, or had it been Noburu?

He didn't really care, instead he couldn't help but wonder why his magic seemed to buzz in his body as soon as he came in contact with the chakra. It had taken a few tiring wandless spells in the bathroom to get it to calm down again.

He would have to look into that later.

The next morning, Jiraiya appeared in Noburu's house to say goodbye and warned him that he might visit the medic if he was in Konoha. Harry was surprised to hear that the man didn't live there.

'For someone who was so set on sending him to Konoha, it makes him sound like an hypocrite.' Harry thought, watching the man say goodbye too Noburu.

He decided to share his thought with the man.

Jiraiya simply laughed at him and teasingly slapped him on the back.

"Oomph!" Harry lost his breath as he went face down on the ground.

Rolling around, he glared at the sheepish looking Sannin.

"I don't think I will miss you any time soon." He told the shinobi bluntly.

It would have sounded a lot more serious had the medic not said it while holding his nose closed, giving a nasal tone to his sentence.

Noburu softly snickered at his charge's expense and then at the sannin's expense as he watched the man's shoulder's drop in disappointment.

"There, there." He consoled the ninja as he helped his charge up. "I'm sure that Hari didn't mean that."

The snort that came from the medic's direction didn't sound very reassuring.

With a bit more jabs being moved around – Hari's scrawniness to his annoyance - and a healed nose, they all bid farewell.

That evening Hari couldn't help but glance towards the second bedroom.

Maybe… maybe he might miss him just a little bit.

~ Five days later ~

The coin had been a large puzzle, but he had eventually managed to find a few gemstones in one of the tiny shops that were able to keep a little bit of magic in them.

More than prepared to test everything endlessly if he had to, Harry had started with the runes, eventually resorting to the use of blood and a needle to carve it into one of his golden coins. Five failed carvings later, he finally made three coins that seemed to work properly. Channelling his magic in them, his blood glowed and was absorbed by the coin.

At moments like these, Harry was glad that the Sannin had left, or he would most likely have been completely intrigued by this new skill.

The last thing that the medic wanted was even more attention.

Once having done the basic tests, Harry had then moved over to Taiki's house and proceeded to drag his friend along to experiment with the distance range of the coins.

Telling the boy to tap the coin with a gemstone had evoked a priceless expression, but that amusement was nothing compared to the amount of relief that washed over the medic when he felt his coin burn gently from the small pouch against his chest.

A weight fell from his shoulders.

And he had promptly tackled Taiki with a hug.

According to Taiki, the happy hug that Harry had given his friend was worth the next few hours of work of gauging if the distance would be a problem. To find out, they had run in opposite directions, though Harry never mentioned to the swordsman that he had quickly slipped into his Seirei disguise and run even further than they had planned.

Every quarter of an hour, his coin continued to burn.

Once he had made his way back, he had continued to explain it to Noburu who watched with bewilderment as the coin in his hand glowed with heat. Taiki grinning like a madman next to him.

"You are really one of a kind, Son." Noburu said, looking at him with a new light in his eyes, but not once with fear. He looked at the coin again and turned it over.

"One of a kind really."

Harry couldn't fight down the proud blush that was slowly appearing on his face.

Noburu proceeded to fasten the leather cord the two small pouches– one with the stone and one with the enchanted coin – around his neck and slipped it under his shirt.

"I will watch over them for you Hari." He told him knowingly.

"It's not like you have anything better to do." Harry joked back, dodging a swipe for his head.

Taiki chuckled as he watched their interaction.

"You know, you should make one for Seirei!" The brown-haired teen had jokingly suggested.

The two men watched as the medic's eyes widened.

"I'm not sure if that is a goo-" Noburu tried, but sighed when he saw a familiar glint in the wizards eyes.

"That's a great idea Taiki! Thanks!" The medic grinned and then run off, probably to do just that.

Taiki twitched as he saw the Chief give him a disapproving and pointed look.

"What?"

"Taiki-kun…"

"I'm sorry?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

Noburu sighed and shook his head as he stalked off. The youth these days…

~ Another week later ~

It had been two days ago that the other ninja had arrived. They had briefly spoken, but the medic didn't look for much interaction beside that.

Nor did he want to go blind by having that 'thumb-up-and-bling-bling-smile' directed at him like at their first meeting.

"I will watch over you, so you don't have to worry at all!" This "Might Guy" had brightly stated, before rambling about some punishment if he wouldn't be able to follow through with his promise.

Harry had blinked, shared a questioning glance with Noburu – who had shrugged helplessly at him– and bowed towards the man.

"Thank you for looking out for me, but please make it something more severe than a scratch and a cut. I would like to be able to heal my patients without making you go through…" He frowned. "Well… all that stuff you just talked about."

The green-clad 'Beast of Konoha' had looked at him in surprise for a moment, before nodding and making the necessary amendments with another load proclamation.

Nope, Hari kept a polite distance from the man for now. He would spend enough time with him on their way to Konoha. He had too much to do.

He had loads of potions to finish and people to check.

Luckily everything was on schedule and finished the next day.

Which meant that he even had had a day of freedom to spare, which Harry had gladly spent with his closest friends.

He sparred with Taiki with a wooden sword, much to the Uncle's amusement. Guy watched from the side-line and had given some constructive criticism that had been surprisingly helpful.

This of course had resulted in a deep discussion between the two elder men, leaving the two friends to simply try to poke each other with these new tips. Not that Hari stood a chance against Taiki. No matter the fact that the swordsman had one of his arms tried to his chest.

After this small work-out, he discussed Ume's experiments with her for a while, before Taiki had reached his limit of boredom and dragged both of them out of the house.

They had spent the rest of the day outside, before dining at Noburu's place and playing a few games of Shogi.

As much as Harry had wanted the time to slow down, he had eventually fallen asleep, promptly followed by Taiki who decided to stay over.

He was awoken by Noburu, breakfast ready and the two proceeded to check all his luggage.

A couple of hours later they stood outside, watching the shed that Harry had come to call his own. Had Noburu and he not met that day… Harry wouldn't have known what to do.

The wizard might not be fully able to consider Noburu his father figure – even Sirius hadn't been a real father figure for him – he was like family. Still, he had come close. So very close.

The man smiled somewhat sadly at the wizard as he looked at him questioningly.

"Coin for your thought, son?"

Harry smiled at the endearment.

"Nothing… Just thinking. I will miss you."

The smile saddened and the man's hand fell upon his shoulder. "Me too. Just make sure to visit once in a while. We owe you a lot."

"I owe you a lot as well." Harry muttered and with a final glance, he turned around and walked towards the main road where the shinobi was waiting for him.

"Hello, Guy-san." He dared to greet the man with a smile. He had been told to drop the "Might-san" the first time he had used it.

"Hello Hari-san!" The man greeted back with a grin – and the accompanied bling.

They would leave in a few minutes.

Harry felt restless as he watched all the people gather to see him off. His backpack was filled with gifts which the ninja next to him had been so helpful to store in those odd scrolls.

It excitedly reminded him of Hermione purse. Maybe he could look into that in this ninja-filled Konoha.

For a moment he wasn't sure what to do, but his decision was taken from his as one of the children grasped his arm and led him around the group. He was suddenly overwhelmed with quick hugs from woman and children, pats on his back and people ruffling his hair – eventually his headphone had dropped to his neck from all the contact.

All the babbling was taking a toll on his ears but the medic beared with it this time.

While giving Ume one last hug, she quickly pecked him on the cheek. He grinned at her for following through with his usual joke. "Thank you."

"Break a leg." She smiled at him, but her eyes were watery.

"Don't break a leg." He muttered back, patting her cheek gently and then turned around to the next person.

"Hari."

"Taiki."

The two regarded each other, before they simultaneously moved forward to embrace each other in what they would later insist to be a very brotherly-hug.

The moment they let go, Taiki put his hand on his chest, pushing against the two small pouches hidden under his clothes.

"If there is _anything_…"

Harry smiled. "I will call. Same to you baka. That friend of ours should have one as well, so don't hesitate to call alright?"

"Hai."

They hugged once more, this time quickly patting each other's back and Hari then turned to Noburu.

Hari didn't hesitate to give him a hug as well, taking the man of guard, but he returned it nonetheless.

Then it was time to go. With a sigh, he turned around for last on time and waved.

"I will try to visit as soon as possible! Look after my place for me!"

"Hai!" A few people chorused.

With a final look at the three most important people, he turned around, trying to ignore the painful twist in his chest as he did so.

He kept walking and walking – the road was so long - until he couldn't contain the urge any longer and glanced over his shoulder. They were still there and waved at him, which he returned and then turned around again.

He felt like crying, but he didn't dare to appear weak in front of the ninja walking next to him.

"Hari-san."

Harry looked at Guy, whom had stopped and now stood crouched, his back turned to him in silent invitation. Harry hesitated for a moment before he climbed on the man's back.

He looked at his friends one more time, trying to burn the picture into his mind and then closed his eyes.

"I'm ready."

With that statement, the shinobi took to the trees and raced away, startling Harry with his speed for a moment, but the ninja's hold was strong.

"Thanks." He muttered after a while.

The ninja turned his head to look him in the eye and smiled sadly at him. Harry could sense the compassion and understanding in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it Hari-kun. Your situation is most un-youthful! If it is possible, try to get some sleep. I won't drop you or I will-." He started, but he was cut off by Hari.

"I know." He told the man honestly.

This man was strong. Not as strong as the Sannin, but still strong. Harry could feel it even better from the position he was in and the medic had to fight down the urge to study the chakra.

Instead he turned his attention to the ninja watching him. "I trust you to deliver me safely, so please don't make set those... punishments for yourself. It is not necessary."

The ninja's eyes widened slightly in surprise, before a soft smile broke on his face. Harry couldn't help but feel honoured to see that small smile instead of the grin that was on the man's face the whole time.

It took a long day of running and many breaks to get to Konoha. The breaks were mostly for Hari's well-being Guy had insisted, even though the medic silently pondered that he could probably have run along with the man nearly the whole way.

Not that he was going to tell him that.

The medic had fallen into a somewhat meditative mind-set at the end of their journey. Guy had told him a lot about Konoha on their way and he was now simply processing it all. It did sound like a peaceful life to live in, filled with more opportunities in comparison to his village – Kurokkasu.

Harry didn't really care about that though.

Still, the shinobi was obviously proud of his village and more than welcoming towards him. He was a nice guy once you got past his somewhat traumatising appearance and attitude.

"We are nearly there. I will drop down in three, two, one." The shinobi counted down.

Harry appreciated the warning and groaned slightly as he felt his legs protest as he walked. After a few steps – and magic – the feeling was gone though and he gave a small bow towards Guy for the ride.

It had saved them many days of travel. Maybe that's why he had been assigned for this mission, Harry thought.

As they continued to walk, Harry couldn't help but admire the massive walls that they were approaching. It might not be as impressive as Hogwarts, but it was still impressive.

"Wow."

"That is the main gate of Konoha." Guy explained as they neared. "I'm happy that I get the honor to be the first one to welcome you to my home."

Hari smiled weakly at him before staring at the large doors that were opened to grand them and other travellers access to the city. As they drew closer, Harry suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine as if he had just stepped through a wall of cold air.

With a puzzled expression the wizard subtly glanced back from the corner of his eyes, but he couldn't spot anything.

Yet, his magic was buzzing again. Had that been chakra?

Before he could make assumptions, Harry was steered towards one of the boots at the sides, where Harry handed over the paperwork that Norubu and Jiraiya had quickly put together. The medic didn't really know whether it was legal, but he didn't really care.

He could always go back.

"Everything is in order, Sir. Enjoy your stay." A random ninja behind the desk stated and gave him his papers back and smiled at his guide. "Hokage-sama wishes to speak to you Might-san."

"Thank you Akita-san." Guy grinned at him and Harry noted that the bling-grin was back full force. "May you have a youthful day!"

"Ah… thanks, you too." The Chuunin returned somewhat awkwardly.

"Well, Hari!" Guy called out to him and easily placed an arm around his shoulders – these ninja were tall! – and waved his other hand in front of them.

"Welcome to Konohagakure!"

It was the shinobi's handmovement that brought Hari's attention to the four large faces cut in the Rock.

He couldn't help but feel slightly more impressed.

"Thanks."

"Well, let's go! It would be very un-youthful me not to help you settle down! Especially seeing as your Fire of Youth is still burning brightly, even though you are going through such a difficult change!" The green-clad shinobi stated and promptly scooped him up, forcing Harry to hold onto him awkwardly.

He eventually managed to climb on the man's back like before– he refused to be escorted in the man's arms like a woman!

Once he was safe again, he watched the shinobi with a confused expression. Why was he suddenly going back to that 'Flame's of Youth' stuff again?

Ninja were so... well crazy.

It was as if all ninja were obliged to have some kind of mental problem or an obsession – he had heard Noburu complain about Jiraiya and Hot Springs before – because this mental switch couldn't be healthy.

Though hadn't Jiraiya mentioned something about ninja and their masks? Maybe this was just an extreme version.

Deciding that he probably would never know, Harry used this moment to take in the village around him. The atmosphere was nice, he reluctantly admitted. He might have been able to settle her comfortably – had he not suffered from a certain doubled homesickness.

About an half hour later, the shinobi and the passenger dropped down in fornt of the largest tower. He only had a moment to study it before he was pulled inside. They walked through the circling hallways for a while until they reached a secretary and were told to wait for a few minutes.

Hari took the time ask some basic questions. Any good restaurants? Schools? Any taboos that he couldn't speak about?

The latter question made Guy grin at him and pat his shoulder. "Don't worry Hari-kun. There's not much taboo here, and the small things, you will find out eventually."

That grin had seemed the most fake one that the wizard had seen in the last few days.

Harry's eyes narrowed mentally. That wasn't really reassuring.

"Hokage-sama is waiting for you Might-san, Hari-san."

Guy nodded his thanks to the Chuunin and ushered the medic inside the now opened office. The wizard wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he waited for the man, clad in white and red robes, to turn around. His presence was powerful at least, like Jiraiya. The man looked like he had been looking through the window over the city for a while. He took a drag from the pipe in hand that that seemed to finish the picture.

Actually, the whole scene looked like those you saw on photos.

It made Harry wonder if the man did it on purpose.

Said man turned around and though Harry had been told that the man was old, he was still surprised. The amusement in the old man's eyes told him that he hadn't been able to mask his surprise well enough.

"Hokage-sama. Thanks for letting me stay." Harry bowed politely.

"Ah, welcome to Konoha Hari-san." The Hokage stated, pleasantly. "Jiraiya told me a lot about you. I must say that I'm surprised by your politeness." He added with a chuckle.

Harry face faulted and smiled somewhat sheepishly.

So much for good first impressions.

**~ End chapter ~**

I wish you all a belated Happy New year! May you dear readers out there read a lot of great fanfiction worth reviewing (always appreciated a lot by the writers) and faving and may all those writers out there find the inspiration and time they need to write twice as much! (always appreciated a lot by the readers)

(...I could use some of that).

For those who are curious I made a basic design of 'Seirei appearace' on my deviantart (link to my profile is on my profile)... It's just a sketch but who knows you might like it. (If not, then I dare you to make something better *wink*)

I hope to hear from you guys soon! And till next time! (which will be much faster, I promise)


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